Our History

The foundations of the Colt Group were laid in 1931 when Jack O'Hea formed Colt Ventilation Limited. The name 'Colt' came from an earlier partnership formed with a William H Colt in 1925 to build domestic houses in timber. One of the features of these houses was that they were effectively ventilated.

Jack O'Hea was an entrepreneur of outstanding vision who placed great importance upon the value of innovation. He was one of the first people to develop ventilation into a science, building an aerodynamics laboratory in London in the early-1930's. (pictured above)

Colt's first products included vehicle ventilators for trains and buses, blackout ventilators for wartime use, the Colt Cowl for preventing down-draughts in chimneys and ventilators for prefabricated housing schemes. Thereafter the company concentrated on ventilation for industry and commerce, and developed a new range of natural and powered purpose-designed equipment.

As the result of a disastrous fire at a General Motors plant in the USA, the world's first automatic smoke exhaust ventilator was designed and supplied by Colt to General Motors' subsidiary Vauxhall Motors in 1953. Colt jointly sponsored a programme of research on smoke control together with the Fire Research Station, and developed a capability in the design of automatic smoke control systems for commerce and industry.

Colt set up manufacturing licensees in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in the 1950's. In 1960 a joint venture was formed to cover the Dutch market. From this base Colt set up subsidiaries and joint venture companies across Continental Europe. Later Colt established a presence in the Gulf States and South East Asia.

Today the Group is represented in more than 50 countries in the form of a network of wholly owned subsidiaries, joint venture companies, agents, manufacturing licensees and distributors.

Colt manufactures in the UK, Holland and Singapore, and has research and testing laboratories in the UK and Germany.

Colt's products and services are so designed that people can live and work within an environment where safety and air and light quality are in perfect balance.

Colt's can offer problem solving and advice, project management, and the design, supply, installation, commissioning and maintenance of systems in the fields of smoke control, ventilation, heating, glazing systems, solar shading and louvre systems.

Colt is privately owned by the O'Hea family and by the Colt Foundation which was established in 1978 with a gift from the O'Hea family of shares in Colt Group Limited.

The primary interest of the Colt Foundation (www.coltfoundation.org.uk) is the promotion of research into social, medical and environmental problems created by commerce and industry. It funds research projects in the field of occupational and environmental health and in particular aims at discovering the cause of illnesses arising from conditions at the place of work.

The Foundation awarded £ 450,000 in grants in 2005. Over 16 % of the Foundation's grants are for the next generation of new scientists and young people in higher education studying related health issues. Since its inception the cumulative spend of the Foundation has been just over £ 9.7 million as at July 2006.

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