verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . july 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message avon rubber plc type public lse avon industry manufacturing founded limpley stoke 1885 1885 headquarters melksham wiltshire england key people sir richard needham chairman products rubber and polymer based products for personal protection industrial and defence and dairy revenue 55 million number of employees approx . 800 website www.avon rubber.com avon rubber plc is a manufacturer of rubber based products for the manufacturing sector . it is a constituent of the ftse smallcap index . its largest divisions namely avon protection systems and milk rite produce equipment and components for the armed forces first response emergency services and the dairy agricultural sectors among others . its corporate headquarters are located 3 km 1.9 mi south of melksham in wiltshire england at the hampton park west development . avon s research and design expertise is supported by artis 1 and locations throughout usa . avon products include cbrn chemical biological radiological and nuclear battlefield respirators emergency response respirators dairy milking liners speed humps aircraft chocks and tiling for military submarines . contents 1 history 2 see also 3 references 4 external links history edit in 1885 messrs e g browne and j c margetson acquired a cloth mill known as avon mill on the banks of the river avon at limpley stoke . the owners of the mill had been timber merchants but had later diversified into the production of rubber goods . by 1890 the business had transferred to premises in melksham in wiltshire . products at this time included solid tyres conveyor belts and components for railways . by 1900 pneumatic tyres for bicycles were being produced and by 1906 the first car tyres were advertised . in 1915 the company acquired greenland mill in bradford on avon wiltshire . in 1933 the company was floated on the london stock exchange . in 1956 the rival company of george spencer moulton founded in 1848 was acquired bringing with it abbey mills and kingston mills in bradford on avon and a jointly owned plant in paris . in 1959 production started on a range of inflatable boats . in 1994 the llanelli based marine business avon inflatables ltd was split off and sold ; since 1998 the company has been a division of zodiac marine france . in 1997 the avon tyres business was sold to cooper tire & rubber company of findlay ohio in the united states leaving the company to concentrate on its core businesses of automotive components technical products and protective equipment . the cooper tires site remains a major employer in central melksham . in march 2000 avon consolidated its activities at a 19 million manufacturing and head office facility at hampton park west at semington near melksham and a 13 million purpose built polymer mixing centre at westbury . as of january 2008 around 350 people worked across the two sites . in june 2005 avon purchased international safety instruments inc. isi based in lawrenceville ga usa . avon isi is a manufacturer of scba apr and thermal imaging systems for fire law enforcement and industrial applications . in august 2006 the avon automotive division was sold to a us based management team and became a separate entity called avon automotive holdings inc. this was the largest single buy out in the company s history . its aerosol division was sold to crosslinks ltd for 1.75 million in march 2008 enabling the organisation to concentrate on its core protective equipment dairy and extrusions markets . in november 2008 the mixing plant at westbury was sold to atr compounding ltd a division of spc uk a compounder of rubber based in whitby . see also edit formula one tyres cooper tire & rubber company formula 3000 british formula three championship references edit artis . artis . retrieved 5 april 2015 . external links edit avon protection systems website avon rubber website atr compounding ltd acquires avon rubber plc certain mixing from avon rubber plc spc uk website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title avon rubber & oldid 728805184 categories automotive companies of englandengineering companies of englandauto parts supplierscompanies established in 1885tire manufacturers1885 establishments in englandcompanies based in wiltshirebritish brandshidden categories articles needing additional references from july 2016all articles needing additional references navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschespa olfran aisnederlands polskiportugu ssvenska edit links this page was last modified on 7 july 2016 at 19 39 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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