The History of Melco
Melco is a Sheffield tool brand founded in 1921. Today, Melco specialises in tools for the tyre-fitting and commercial vehicle trade — including tyre levers, bead breakers, wheel braces, axle stands and tyre-bay tools — building on more than a century of manufacturing experience. In 2026, Footprint Sheffield Ltd acquired the Melco brand, tooling and trading assets, and Melco became a trading brand of Footprint Sheffield Ltd.
Started on a barrow, 1921
Melco's story begins with a man who couldn't find a job. In 1921, Thomas Meldrum was struggling for work in Sheffield when he joined a group of fellow night-school students — studying bookkeeping — who decided to strike out and build their own businesses rather than wait to be hired.
Thomas started small. He convinced a local blacksmith to make fireside companion sets, which he loaded onto a barrow and sold at market, day after day. It didn't take long for customers to start asking for more: can you make this? Can you make that? Thomas realised that if he wanted to grow, he needed to control manufacturing himself — so he hired someone to sell, found someone to make, and began producing forged steel products under his own name.
From fireside tools to the motor trade
As the motor trade boomed, Thomas spotted an opportunity. He began making starting handles for early motorcars — modest items, sold in small quantities at first. But the quality of his work caught the attention of bigger names, and Melco won a contract to supply the Ford Motor Company, exporting starting handles to Ford in the United States.
From there, the range grew quickly: wheel braces, tyre levers, socket sets, screwdrivers, spark plug spanners — anything the motor trade needed. Thomas also expanded into tubular box spanners, acquiring two well-regarded brands, Boxer and Apollo, along the way. Melco became known worldwide for its box spanners, supplying original equipment to Ford, Triumph, Rover, MG, Scania and Land Rover, as well as the Ministry of Defence and the Post Office. On the aftermarket side, Melco tools found their way onto the shelves of Halfords, Park, Unipart, Brown Brothers and many others.
Over the decades the catalogue stretched further still — drain plug wrenches, brake keys, spark plug cleaning equipment, feeler gauges, and car ramps among them — reflecting an era when, as former Managing Director Carl Meldrum puts it, "one vehicle was pretty much the same as another, and a simple set of tools would repair virtually any vehicle." At its busiest, Melco shipped around 5,000 wheel braces a week and a quarter of a million tube spanners a year.
Freedom Works
Thomas's business grew through a succession of Sheffield premises — a small yard known as Beehive Works, then Wheat Sheaf Works on John Street — before settling at what became Freedom Works. The name stuck because of what it meant to Thomas: building his own business had given him freedom, and the freedom to employ himself and others. Even after the factory expanded to absorb five or six smaller works nearby, it kept the Freedom Works name.
At its peak, the company employed more than a hundred people, with the workforce holding steady around 62 from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s. Freedom Works was a genuine manufacturing hub: drop stamps and upset forging presses, a machine shop, zinc electroplating, powder coating, heat treatment, steel and tube warehousing with its own cutting section, a welding department, and a dedicated tube-spanner shop cold-forming spanners by the thousand.
Holding the line on quality
As cheaper imports became more prominent from the 1990s onward, Melco faced increasing price competition but retained its focus on durability. "We always had a firm belief that quality came before price," says Carl Meldrum, who joined the family business and led it for 45 years. "The product needs to do the job correctly for a good period of its life, not just be based on price."
Melco tools became known for long service life, and it was not unusual for one to turn up, still working, in a customer's shed decades after it was bought. "They found these in my father's shed when he passed away," Carl recalls. "They've outlived the purchaser, which I think, in today's landfill society, is something we should be embracing." Carl summarises that philosophy as: "Value is not the price. Value is the life of the tool."
From Freedom Works to Melco Products Ltd
In 2016, the original Meldrum family business closed, and Carl, together with his brother Neil, purchased the Melco brand to keep it going — preserving continuity of supply and relationships built with suppliers and customers over generations. Under Melco Products Ltd, the focus sharpened toward the commercial vehicle and tyre-fitting trade.
Melco today: tyre bay and commercial vehicle tools
Modern Melco tools are aimed at the people who keep commercial vehicles moving — tyre fitters working in the bay, workshops and transport operators. The current range includes:
- Tyre levers for tubeless and non-tubeless tyres
- Bead breakers, bead wedges and bead keepers
- Wheel braces and wheel-nut wrenches
- Axle stands and tyre stools
- Tyre spreaders and other tyre-bay tools
- Replacement parts for selected Melco products
Our forged hand tools — including tyre levers and bead breakers — are drop-forged, heat-treated and ground in our Sheffield factory. Our axle stands are fabricated in-house. Some items in the range, including certain wheel braces and wrenches, are made to Melco's specification by trusted manufacturing partners.
Melco sells through established distributors and retailers as well as directly through this website. Feedback from tyre fitters, workshops and commercial vehicle operators continues to help shape the range and product information.
2026: Footprint Sheffield
In 2026, Footprint Sheffield Ltd acquired the Melco brand, tooling and trading assets. Production staff moved to Footprint's Sheffield operation and the Melco range continues as a trading brand of Footprint Sheffield Ltd. The aim is to preserve the specialist products, knowledge and customer relationships built around Melco while continuing to develop the range for today's tyre-bay and commercial vehicle market.
