In 1901 the American match maker the Diamond Match Company bought an existing ma|tch factory in the United Kingdom, at Litherland, near Liverpool, and installed a continuous match making machine that could produce 600,000 matches per hour. Their matches were sold under the "Captain Webb", "Puck" and "Swan Vesta" brand names. Bryant & May could not compete, so in 1905 they bought the assets and goodwill of the British Diamond Match Company; and the (American) Diamond Match Company acquired 54.5 percent of the share capital of Bryant & May.