Eley Hawk celebrates 190 years of innovation in shotgun cartridges

The British company, founded by the Eley brothers in 1828, is the oldest cartridges manufacturer in Europe and currently sells its products to more than 40 countries.

Eley Hawk, Europe’s oldest manufacturer of shotgun cartridges, is celebrating 190 years developing the most reliable, safe and innovative products for shooters and hunters. The British company was founded in 1828 by the Eley brothers William and Charles, and since then it has earned a reputation as an industry pioneer.

To celebrate the anniversary, the company launched in May, its new clay range of cartridges: Titanium and Titanium Strike. The new release is a testament to the company’s commitment to pioneer the industry as these are the first cartridges with Nickel coated lead shot ever produced by a British manufacturer.

To mark the occasion Eley Hawk will also be launching a limited run of 55,000 190th Anniversary paper case cartridges for collectors and consumers in the UK.

The relentless search for improvement and excellence that led to the Titanium range development is the same one that moved William and Charles Eley to establish the company 190 years ago. The Eley brothers opened the first factory in 1830 in Old Bond Street, where they manufactured the wire cartridges patented in France by Joshua Jenour. The wire cartridge consisted of a cylindrical paper tube in which was a fine copper wire basket containing shot and on top of it there as a wad. This invention was a major step forward towards the self-contained cartridge as we know it today.

Innovation is thus in Eley Hawk’s DNA since it was created and has been recognized all over the world in three different centuries. From a gold medal in Philadelphia in 1876 to the coveted Shooting Industry Awards obtained in 2004, 2012 and 2017, the company’s products have also been recognized in Australia, France, and India, among other countries.

A renewed commitment to manufacturing excellence in the UK In addition to its research and development investment in new products, Eley Hawk has recently renewed its commitment to its Sutton Coldfield, state-of-the-art facility, where it loads and tests its cartridges and has done since 2002.

Additionally, the company is one of the very few industry players with a fully integrated production chain, manufacturing every component of the cartridges since it became vertically integrated in 1912. This results in the highest control over the quality of the products, leading to the most reliable and safe shotshells.

The combination of its pioneering developments together with the excellence of its manufacturing processes have helped Eley Hawk to grow from its traditional British roots to become one of the most global players in the industry. It currently sells close to 100 million shotgun cartridges a year to over 40 countries, including Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Australia.

“At Eley Hawk, we take great pride in being able to work for such an iconic company and feel honored to contribute in writing the current chapter of our very long and unmatched history. Our staff work hard to maintain our unique reputation within the industry and to provide shooters with the innovative and outstanding cartridges that they deserve”.

For more information, please visit - www.eleyhawkltd.com