History
BBA Aviation can trace its origins back to a small industrial belting works founded in Scotland in 1879. Over time, what was known as BBA Group grew its operations to include a wide range of specialist industrial and automotive products before becoming involved in aviation. In 2006, with the demerger of Fiberweb, BBA became a focused aviation support and aftermarket services business and was renamed BBA Aviation.
BBA Group acquired ASIG in July 2001
Throughout the 1990s BBA Group continued to grow its aviation and nonwovens portfolio.
In 1992 it formed Signature Flight Support by merging Page Avjet, an executive aircraft interiors business, with Butler fixed base operations and took control of Reemay. In 1995 the company purchased two more nonwoven manufacturers, Terram, UK and the Fiberweb Group, USA and Europe.
The company took full ownership of Signature in 1996 and, in the same year purchased Trinity Aerospace Engineering, doubling BBA's landing gear repair and overhaul business. It also won a contract with the US Air Force to supply F-16 aircraft canopies. BBA further enlarged its nonwovens business with the purchase of Corovin in Germany.
At the same time the company initiated a restructuring of what was now an industrial conglomerate by cutting costs and selling non core business and, by 1997, BBA was focused on two major divisions: Aviation and Materials Technology (nonwoven fabrics and friction materials).
BBA acquired more FBOs and aircraft repair and overhaul businesses in 1997 and, in 1998, purchased the jet engine overhaul businesses H+S Aviation in the UK and UNC Airwork in the US, along with further FBOs to extend the Signature network in the USA. Materials Technology acquired Veratec, the nonwovens business of International Paper and, in 1999, began work on a new nonwovens plant in Tianjin, China. In 2000 BBA Group bought Oxford Aviation, a UK based pilot training company and added FBOs in the UK. It also sold its automotive friction materials division to HSBC for £389.2 million and moved from the Engineering to the Transport sector on the London Stock Exchange.
ASIG was acquired for £97 million in July 2001, extending significantly its operations in commercial aviation and, in 2002, BBA Group spent £38 million acquiring further FBOs in the USA and a freight and ground services business. Bolt on acquisitions were made in the next few years, including Premier Turbines, an engine overhaul business in Neosho MO, and a significant number of new Signature locations.
