1915 - founded by Sir Richard Fairey as the Fairey Aviation Company Ltd manufacturing seaplanes

1950s - diversified and established non-aviation engineering capabilities in areas such as marine, energy and filtration

1960 - taken over by Westland Aircraft

1980s - focussed on high technology electronics and systems engineering.

1987 - management buy-out from Pearson

1990s - concentrated on building its electronics sector, acquiring a number of companies and disposing of the electrical insulator and hydraulic actuator businesses.

1997 - acquired Burnfield, of which Malvern was the most significant company.

1999 - Servomex plc acquired

2000 - acquired the four instrumentation and controls businesses of Spectris AG of Germany in July

2001 - name changed to Spectris plc in May; two of the filtration businesses were sold

2002 - Fairey Industrial Ceramics sold in March