montage

Following a lean period during World War II due to the “blackout” the company enjoyed a period of postwar growth, and in 1952 the company was acquired by Suchy Holdings Limited which was able to invest in the business which needed modernising to compete in a market where all new street lighting was now electric.

Suchy Holdings Limited had been formed in 1946 and included several companies, one of which was Chemring Limited, which had a process for metallising fabrics. Chemring adapted the process for silver coating nylon filaments and netting for light-weight radar reflectors for balloons which the Meteorological Office used to measure wind speed by tracking them with ground radar. In addition, the Royal Swedish Air Board and the UK Ministry of Defence became interested in the silver coated filaments for use as chaff as a radar decoy.