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Hunting Defence

By 2001 Hunting PLC was a £1 billion turnover international group which was founded in 1874. It consists of two operating divisions; Defence and Oil, and employed some 7,000 people world wide. When Charles Samuel Hunting entered the oil business in the 1890's he was already expanding upon a successful shipowning firm set up by his father, also named Charles, in 1874. An inveterate traveller, he had journeyed the world "to study the oil trade" and in short order had pursued exploration prospects in Russia, built the first batch oil refinery on the Thames, invested in a production venture in Hungary and sought trading opportunities out of the Gulf of Mexico.

He was a dynamic and directed man, characterised by his clear vision on what would power world trade. Leading by example he took a timely risk by ordering one of the first ever oil tankers. A subsequent building program was to see one of the largest independent tanker fleets in the world flying the Hunting flag.

The First World War decimated the Hunting fleet and when Charles' two sons Percy and Lindsay got to grips with the business in the early twenties it was a desolate landscape that greeted the brothers. Determined once again to rebuild the fleet, Percy as "governing partner" also diversified the business by taking the company into aircraft servicing and manufacturing, and some years later an airline business, Hunting Clan.

Hunting recognized a new opportunity in the immediate postwar years, that of offering air transportation services. As such, the company became one of the first independent British companies to offer civilian passenger transport in the second half of the 1940s. Hunting Air Transport quickly built up a fleet of aircraft, including eight Viking aircraft, and became one of the United Kingdom's major domestic carriers by the early 1950s

The Hunting name in aviation became synonymous with a range of military and civil aircraft including the Jet Provost and in its nascent days the aircraft that would become one of Britain's best export sellers, the BAC 1-11.

Hunting Defence provided management services to certain MoD establishments in the UK as well as providing defence equipment and services, munitions supply and certification, composites winding, communications equipment, retarder systems and parachutes, and composites engineering through its subsidiaries: Hunting Engineering; Irvin Group.

Hunting Contract Services provided on-site management, maintenance and support services at a number of Army, RAF and RN Stations in the UK and Europe, under long term MoD contracts. It also provides technical manpower as required for civil and military contracts in the aerospace and telecommunications industries.

Hunting Engineering, based in Ampthill near Bedford in the UK, was established in 1957 evolving out of Hunting Percival Aircraft. Since that time the company was involved in many UK defense programs - principally as Prime Contractor. Hunting Engineering was engaged in the development and large scale production, principally as prime contractor of weapon systems for the UK MoD and a wide range of defence related services to the UK and approved overseas customers. The company is an acknowledged specialist in the supply and certification of the munitions for major defence programmes, being responsible, for example, for co-ordinating the integration and supply of the weapon systems which will be carried by the British Army’s new attack helicopter, the Westland Longbow Apache.

The company had significant experience and expertise in the design and manufacture of filament- wound products for both military and commercial applications. These include rocket launch tubes, drive shaft assemblies, print and film rollers, aircraft de-icing ducts, silencers for marine diesel engines and composite tubes for the offshore oil industry.

The company’s Communications division designed and installed complex communications equipment in military vehicles, produces portable generators for military applications, and aircraft weapon release units. It has developed a fibre optic vehicle communications system called HIWAY which affords significant savings in space and weight. It also operates the UK’s largest electromagnetic assessment facility for both military and commercial use, and is supplying the emerging market for battle trainers.

The Irvin Group was a major manufacturer of retarder systems and parachutes for aircraft, weapons, submunitions and man-use. The company, which has subsidiaries in the USA, Canada, the UK and Italy, also has interests in sea survival, decoy and space vehicle recovery systems. Other product ranges include flexible fuel tanks, protection equipment, mobile hospitals and inflatables of all types.

Further diversification came after the Second World War in which yet again Hunting personnel suffered the most appalling loss of life in the tanker trade. The urgency to test new markets, scan the horizon for new opportunities and to anticipate the needs of industry led the brothers into all sorts of ventures - and adventures. Oil had been struck in Texas, a world-class defence company had been established (whose precision engineering skills gave rise to the formation of an oil services company), an aerial survey and geophysical business with a global reach built, - and substantial investments made in the Canadian oil sector.

Petroleum retailing, lubricants and specialised products were added to the portfolio and increasingly outside capital was brought into the business to fund expansion during the sixties and seventies. The hitherto privately owned Hunting interests went public in three separate, though interrelated quoted companies. Under the leadership of Clive Hunting, the company began to streamline its rather complex ownership structure. The situation was simplified in 1989 under Clive Hunting when all three were merged into the present Hunting PLC. His nephew Richard Hunting subsequently succeeded to the chair, taking up the reins as the company entered this new era.

Hunting's exposure to the defense and aviation industries left the company vulnerable in the early 1990s. The collapse of the Soviet empire and the end of the Cold War caused a dropoff in defense spending around the world. The outbreak of war in the Persian Gulf also led to a downturn in the aviation industry. Pressure on these operations continued throughout the decade, and by the late 1990s Hunting had decided to abandon the aviation business, selling off its aviation holdings by 1999.

Babcock International's transformation from old economy engineer into dynamic military support services group took a step closer to fruition in February 2001 when it confirmed plans to buy Hunting Contract Services (HCS), the military support services business of Hunting, for GBP60.9m in cash. The deal added support operations for the army and air force to Babcock's existing naval operations at Rosyth. The deal included the transfer of 1,800 employees to Babcock. The acquisition was part of a new strategic focus on support services, rather than engineering.

The company metamorphosed again into an industry challenging upstream energy services company, in one sector as befits a fully listed public company. Boosted by the proceeds of restructuring and the sale of the Canadian midstream business, Gibson Energy in 2008, The Company has since sought to consolidate its global footprint through aggressive organic investment and selective acquisition. The acquisition of Innova-Extel, a Texan based electronics manufacturer, in 2010 provided a platform around which an advanced manufacturing group has been built augmented by the more recent purchases of Dearborn, Specialty Supply and WL Doffing to offer a more comprehensive product range for field operators.