Toye & Co to leave stock market

TOYE & Co, Birmingham’s oldest manufacturer, is planning to delist from the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) after 11 years of trading, reports suggest.

Last week chairman Bryan Toye launched an attempt to take a controlling interest in the jewellery and regalia maker when he acquired 272,000 shares from Gibraltar-based Harris Rodriguez.

Toye says it is his intention to take his family’s company private.

“During this time, the company has not benefited as much as it had hoped from being listed while the costs attaching to such status are substantial in relation to the company’s size,” he said.

Jewellery Quarter-based Toye & Co recently featured in an episode of the series Hidden Histories: Britain’s Oldest Family Businesses.

It is one of only a handful of regalia-making companies left in Britain today. It uses traditional techniques to make thousands of items for the military, exclusive societies, foreign leaders and the Royal Household, including The Queen.

The business, which operates from two factories and employs 132 people, has been handed down from father to son for hundreds of years and is now run by Fiona Toye, the first female member of the family to take charge – although her connection is through marriage rather than birthright.