page_title: British United Shoe Machinery
section_title: BUSM Factory Site
hierarchical_section_title: British United Shoe Machinery / BUSM Factory Site
caption_attribution_description: English: British United Shoe Machinery main factory building being demolished, Ross Walk, Leicester, 2010. After the company went into administration in 2000, the development company which owned the site gradually demolished the factory buildings and replaced them with dwellings. This photograph was taken from the position where the bridge that connected the factory buildings went across Ross Walk.
context_page_description: British United Shoe Machinery Ltd. with head office in Leicester, England, was formed around the turn of the 20th century as a subsidiary of United Shoe Machinery Company of the U.S.A., becoming part of a group which for most of the 20th century was the world's largest manufacturer of footwear machinery and materials, exporting shoe machinery to more than 50 countries. After two takeovers and a BUSM-based management buyout the USM group became headquartered in Leicester until entering administration in 2000.
  In the 1960s and 1970s, it was Leicester's biggest employer employing more than 4,500 locally and 9500 worldwide. Most of the workforce was recruited via an apprentice scheme which trained a large proportion of Leicester's engineers. The company had "a respected reputation for technical innovation and excellence", between 1898 and 1960, it developed and marketed nearly 800 new and improved shoe machines and patented more than 9,000 inventions, at one time employing 5% of the UK's patent agents.
  The collapse of the company in October 2000 destroyed the pensions of the workers. Their story became "one of the most vivid examples of what can go wrong with..Private Equity".
context_section_description: In 2007 a planning application was made for 1210 houses on the former site on Ross Walk by Trafalgar Global Ltd. The construction of new homes commenced in 2010 with the first residential occupiers of site moving there in 2011. The first phase of the development was completed in 2011 by Westleigh Developments Ltd. The chimney was demolished in January 2012.
caption: British United Shoe Machinery main factory building being demolished, Ross Walk, Leicester, 2010
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