The history of this company can be dated back to 1870 when Callender's Cable & Construction Company was formed by William Ormiston Callender. They began manufacturing insulated cable during the 1880s and played a significant role in the development of the National Grid in Britain during the 1930s.

In 1890, the British Insulated Wire Company of Prescot was formed by the Atherton Brothers, T P Hewitt, Colonel Pilkington and Sebastian Ferranti to manufacture power cables insulated with paper. In 1902, this company was merged with the Telegraph Manufacturing Company of Helsby to become British Insulated & Helsby Cables Limited, later renamed to British Insulated Cables Limited in 1925.

In 1945, Callender's Cable & Construction Company merged with British Insulated Cables merged to become British Insulated Callender's Cables Limited.

The company continued in cable manufacture and eventually gained an international reputation. In 1975, the company was renamed BICC.

Following some bad investments in East Germany and Russia, the company began to struggle. It began selling its subsidiaries and, in 2000, after seeling its cable operations, renamed itself Balfour Beatty, the name of one of its subsidiaries.