British Insulated Callender's Cables (BICC) was a 20th century British cable manufacturer and construction company which originated in two 19th century pioneer electric cable companies - Callenders of Erith, formed in 1882, and British Insulated Wire Co, formed in 1890. Now renamed after its former subsidiary Balfour Beatty.
- 1870 Company founded (according to DnB)
- 1945 British Insulated Callender's Cables was formed by the merger of two long established cable firms, Callenders Cable and Construction Co and British Insulated Cables. Subsidiaries could could trace their roots back to submarine cable manufacturing on the Thames in the 1850s. It was a public company.
- 1961 Employed 15,000 persons. Main works at Erith, Helsby, Huyton Quarry, Leigh, Melling and Prescot.
- 1975 The company was renamed BICC Ltd
- Among the many early companies absorbed into BICC was the Greenwich firm Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Co (Telcon).
- Constituent companies of BICC played significant roles in construction of the British National Grid in the 1930s. Callender's for example constructed the 132kV crossing of the Thames at Dagenham with overhead cables spanning 3060 feet (932m) between two 487ft (148m) towers, and allowing 250ft (76m) clearance for shipping. Companies including Glovers at Trafford Park and Callender's at Erith contributed to manufacturing PLUTO.
- By the 1970s the firm had works at Erith, Prescot, Kirkby, Leyton, Helsby, Leigh, Melling, Wrexham, Blackley and Belfast, making electric power cables, telecommunications cables and metals. BICC's (originally Callender's) research and engineering laboratories at a former power station site in White City, London was close to Ormiston House, William Ormiston Callender's house of the 1870s.
- In 1999 the ailing BICC sold its optical cables business to Corning and power cables businesses to General Cable Corporation, which subsequently sold on parts to Pirelli.
- Closure of part the Erith works by Pirelli was announced in 2002, with production of oil-filled cable transferred to their Eastleigh works in Hampshire.
- Pirelli subsequently sold off their cable operations, now known as Prysmian.
- BICC also owned construction company Balfour Beatty, and following sale of the cable operations the remaining company was renamed as Balfour Beatty in 2000.
- 1968 Queen's Award to Industry for Export Achievement
- 1968 Supplied busbar installations for the Winfrith power station
Sources of Information
- The Engineer of 8th March 1968 p399
- The Engineer of 26th April 1968 p650
- [1] Wikipedia
- 1961 Guide to Key British Enterprises