In 1953 Consolidated Metal Industries (CMI) was formed to bring together the business activities of the Fowler family which included their shareholding in Auto Manufacturing a company which produced the Auto brand of nails.
In 1964 CMI formed an association with Sydney Cooke Limited of Australia to manufacture small screws in New Zealand. The company was known as Sydney Cooke Fasteners (NZ) Limited. Later CMI purchased the Sydney Cooke shareholding and renamed the company CMI Screws and Fasteners Limited.
In the 1980’s CMI was a large and diversified group of companies which was taken over by Brierley Investments who later merged it into the Winstone Group of companies and in 1986 Winstones were then taken over by Fletcher Challenge Limited.
Fletcher Challenge broke up the Winstone group of businesses and assimilated various parts of CMI that related to FCL’s core activities resulting in CMI Screws and Fasteners being offered for sale.
In 1991 this business was purchased by a consortium comprising Acma Capital Limited Aldridge Investments Limited and Warwick Bringans who was appointed as Managing Director. In 1994 Warwick Bringans sold his shareholding jointly to Acma Capital Limited and Aldridge Investments Limited.
In September 2000 the company was purchased by its current owners who renamed it CMI Fasteners Limited. CMI is today the largest manufacturer of screws and fasteners in New Zealand.