The Acrow Group was founded in 1935 by a Swiss emigrant William Aphonse de Vigier as Acrow (Engineers) ltd. The company latter opened offices at 33 Catherine Place, London, SW1. Telephone: Victoria 0693. Cables: "Acrowlit, Sowest, London".. After WWII the Group grew by buying various engineering companies, but by the early 1980s was in trouble and collapsed into administration in 1985 and was broken up. The Acrow name survived.