Today marks the official 75th anniversary of the EAMTM (European Association of Machine Tool Merchants).
This originated when 10 used-machine-tool merchants formed the British Association of Used Machine Tool Merchants on 1 October 1940; they included Thos W Ward Ltd, which is still trading today under the name TW Ward CNC Machinery Ltd.
The Association was incorporated on 25 August 1942, when the membership fee was 10 guineas; on 29 December 1959, it was renamed the British Association of Machine Tool Merchants after merging with the Scottish Association of Machine Tool Merchants.
In 1973, after the UK joined the European Community, the Association broadened its scope of membership and became the Association of European Machine Tool Merchants.
It changed to its current name — the European Association of Machine Tool Merchants — in 1991 but kept its headquarters in the UK; it went ‘fully European’ in 1995, when it moved its headquarters to Belgium.
Documentation relating to the Association can be found at the Web site (
www.eamtm.org), which provides access to annual reports dating from 1954 onwards. Over its 75 years, the Association has had almost 1,500 members, and there are currently member companies in 40 countries on all continents.