Lawrence Edwards & Co. (Engineers)

Lawrence Edwards & Co. (Engineers) Ltd of Kidderminster, Worcestershire, was an agricultural engineering firm whose founding date has not been established; the Museum of English Rural Life holds its trade leaflets from October 1955, when it was offering the 'Acre' soil shredder, a 'Komag' sickle grinder, a PTO air pump, a tractor safety pawl and the Linford hydraulic Handi-Jack, and a July 1956 press reprint on the 'Acre' Mark 2, 3 and 4 shredders. Later leaflets give the address as Stourport Road, Kidderminster (1966 and 1968) and add a Cox ditch cleaner, the 'Berwyn' level loader, 'Safeguard' telescopic PTO shaft guards and a slurry pump.

For the Land Rover the firm produced the Edwards' Air Compressor 'for centre or rear P.T.O.', approved by the Rover Co. Ltd: the rear-PTO model could be carried on the vehicle and fitted ready for work in under sixty seconds, while the centre-PTO model bolted beneath the centre floorboard and stayed in place, and either would pump a Land Rover tyre from flat in a minute and a quarter or run a spray gun. The Commercial Motor reported the Edwards unit in March 1959 and noted it among the compressors shown at the Rover Company's display of Land-Rover variants and auxiliary equipment that April, alongside Bullows, Atlas Copco and B.E.N. Patents. The 'Acre' soil shredder was also sold as Land Rover equipment, belt-driven from the rear PTO pulley or carried on a three-point linkage.

The company became the British distributor of Quicke front-end loaders and held the franchise for 32 years. In October 1999 AB Alo Maskiner of Sweden, maker of the Quicke loader, bought Lawrence Edwards to take over its UK distribution; the firm continued from its existing Kidderminster premises as Alo UK, with Steve Evans remaining managing director and all staff retained. The Companies House record of Lawrence Edwards Limited (incorporated 1998, renamed Alo UK Limited on 1 October 1999) shows the successor in liquidation; a separate company, 00201537, carried the name Lawrence Edwards & Co. (Engineers) Limited from 1994 to 2002 before becoming DBS Properties.