Merryweather Industries

Overview
Merryweather Industries was the first private company to attempt to produce a BattleMech.

History
The BattleMech that Merryweather decided to build was a new variant of the Gladiator, a design developed in secret by New Samarkand Armor Works in the early 2460s. Exactly how Merryweather, a Terran Hegemony private company, managed to secure the design specifications for the first BattleMech to be produced by the Draconis Combine is uncertain. However Merryweather obtained the details, they began developing a new version of the Gladiator, starting with a significant structural redesign of the 'Mech. Merryweather almost immediately demonstrated the financial risks involved in attempting to produce or modify a BattleMech design without direct support from a large government. Merryweather were already behind the curve when it came to BattleMech technology, being far behind the Hegemony itself as well as the research programs of the various Great Houses, and by the time the GLD-3R Gladiator had completed it's first production run in 2490 Merryweather had nearly gone bankrupt.

As it was, the GLD-3R Gladiator proved to be a lackluster 'Mech even by the standards of the era, and Merryweather were only able to attract planetary militias as customers. Despite the problems involved in the production of the GLD-3R, Merryweather continued with a second production run of a new and substantially modified variant of the Gladiator, the GLD-4R. This second production run was never completed, with Merryweather deciding to close the production line in 2495. Merryweather subsequently reinvented itself as a manufacturer of IndustrialMechs, which it would produce for several centuries until the company became a casualty of the Succession Wars.

The Primary factory on Alula Australis was closed in 2495, and the Gladiator 'Mech production stops in this time.

Manufacturing
Merryweather Industries has a manufacturing center on the following planet: