One black and white photograph of the completed factory for Aero Zipp Fasteners Ltd, at Unit A1 on the Treforest Trading Estate. The company was founded in 1939 by Joachim Koppel, an Austrian Jew who fled Nazi-Europe in the 1930s.

Aero Zipp produced metal zip fasteners. At the outbreak of World War Two, they began working on aircraft components and gauge making (tool, jigs, fixtures) for the Ministry of Supply and the Ministry of Production. They also produced lighters, powder compacts, aluminium knitting needles and small engineering parts. Aero Zipp Fasteners Ltd ceased to exist in its own right in the early 1970s when it was bought by an American zip manufacturer, Talon Division of Textron Inc, based in Massachusetts, USA. Talon closed the Treforest plant in 1982 and ceased trading in the UK at the same time. There is currently an Aero Zipp Ltd trading in Merthyr Tydfil, which acquired the Aero trademark in 1989. However, this company has no connections to the original family.

The photograph is from Album I.

Sources:

Beebe, Tiffany, Britain’s special areas and the refugee crisis (2024) https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/c04a1a0d2897409d84ee2169cfb4f914 [accessed 26 September 2024]

Parry-Jones, Cai, The History of the Jewish Diaspora in Wales (doctoral thesis, Bangor University, 2014)
https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/files/20579001/null [accessed 26 September 2024]

People's Collection Wales, The Holocaust and Wales: Aero Zipp Fasteners at Treforest Trading Estate (2024) https://www.peoplescollection.wales/learn/holocaust-and-wales-aero-zipp [accessed 04 November 2024]

Refugees from National Socialism in Wales, Treforest Trading Estate https://wp-research.aber.ac.uk/nsrefugeeswales/history/life-for-refugees-in-wales/treforest-industrial-estate/ [accessed 26 September 2024]

Rhondda Cynon Taf Library Service Digital Archive, Treforest Silk Printers Ltd https://www.rctourheritage.com/quick-search?q=aero%20zipp&WINID=1730705978544 [accessed 04 November 2024]

Depository: Pontypridd Museum.