Producer
Avon Protection plc
Melksham, Wiltshire, UK-based SCBA manufacturer (LSE: AVON); specializes in respiratory protection for military, law enforcement, and fire service. Produces complete SCBA systems including face masks, regulators, backframes, and high-pressure composite cylinders. Key US operations: Cadillac, Michigan manufacturing center (acquired from MSA Safety in 2019 for ~$91M). Avon's composite SCBA cylinders use aluminum alloy liners overwrapped with carbon fiber; competes with Luxfer and Worthington in the complete SCBA assembly market for fire, military, and law enforcement. Previously known for its military gas masks (including the S10 used by UK military); sold off the gasmask business to focus on breathing apparatus. Avon is one of the few vertically integrated SCBA producers making both the cylinder and the complete breathing apparatus.
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Military CBRN Breathing Apparatus
55%Fire Service SCBA
30%Law Enforcement & Industrial
10%Military Gasmasks & Personal Protection
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Did you know2024
Avon Protection (Melksham, Wiltshire, UK) is a publicly-listed company whose primary revenue comes from US military breathing apparatus contracts — specifically CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear) self-contained breathing apparatus for the US Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. Avon acquired MSA Safety's breathing apparatus manufacturing facility in Cadillac, Michigan in 2019 to serve US military procurement. The same company that makes the breathing systems protecting US soldiers in CBRN environments also competes in the civilian fire service SCBA market using similar composite cylinder technology. A British company has become a dominant US military respiratory protection contractor — supplying the breathing apparatus that US forces would wear in a chemical weapons attack.
Avon Protection ↗Origin2023
Avon Protection traces its origins to Avon Rubber Company, founded in 1885 in Melksham, Wiltshire, England -- a Victorian rubber goods manufacturer that was part of the same British industrial rubber sector that produced Dunlop and associated companies. Avon Rubber diversified into military gas masks during World War II, supplying the British Army with protective respirators, and maintained that defense relationship through the Cold War (producing the S10 gas mask that UK forces used for decades). In 1990, Avon Rubber acquired Avon Industrial Polymers; in 2019, the company rebranded to Avon Protection following the sale of its dairy rubber products division to focus exclusively on protective equipment. The critical strategic move was the 2019 acquisition of MSA Safety's breathing apparatus manufacturing facility in Cadillac, Michigan -- which gave Avon direct US manufacturing presence and positioned it to win US DoD SCBA contracts that require domestic manufacturing content. A British rubber company that made gas masks for the British Army in 1940 now manufactures the breathing systems for the US Army in the 21st century, from a Michigan factory it bought from a Pittsburgh safety company.
Avon Protection plc ↗