Platt Brothers was a huge company at one time and had two main sites in Oldham. The Hartford site at Werneth occupied 65 acres and the companies total workforce was 15,000. Business declined in the 1920s with the exception of a short post-war boom. In 1957 the company merged with J Stone (Holdings) and thus the Stone-Platt Group was formed. This advert appeared after that merger in one of the Oldham official guides.

From this point the heart of the organisation moved away from Oldham and this was exacerbated when the American Saco-Lowell Corporation was taken over in 1973. After intial success the business struggled and the Hartford works closed in 1980 with the loss of 600 jobs.