enforcement and industrial applications. In August 2006, the Avon Automotive division was sold to a US-based management team and became a separate entity called Avon Automotive Holdings Inc.; this was the largest buy-out in the company's history. The aerosol division was sold for £1.75 million in March 2008 to Avon Group (an unrelated Bristol-based company), enabling Avon Rubber to concentrate on its core protective equipment, dairy and extrusions markets. In November 2008, the mixing plant at Westbury was sold to ATR Compounding Ltd, a division of SPC UK, a compounder of rubber based in Whitby. The company, which had a long history of manufacturing respirators – including the S6 NBC Respirator, a gas mask used by the British armed forces from the 1960s, and the S10 from the 1980s – began to supply the M50 mask to United States forces in 2009. In January 2020, Avon purchased Ceradyne, Inc.'s advanced ballistic protection business and the Ceradyne brand from 3M. In September 2020, the company divested its milking equipment business, milkrite | InterPuls, to DeLaval for net proceeds of around £160 million. This enabled the company to concentrate on personal protection, both respiratory and ballistic, under the Avon Protection brand. Shortly after, they acquired Team Wendy, a maker of helmets for military and first responder use, for a reported $130million. The company changed its name from Avon Rubber to Avon Protection in July 2021. In December 2021, the company announced it would be closing its body armour business after its bullet-proof vests failed US regulatory tests. In April 2022 the company warned that the year's profits would miss City forecasts, leading to a share price drop of nearly 20 per cent over the course of a single day. Notable people Robert Fuller, son of George Pargiter Fuller, was managing director in 1927 Charles Floyd (1905–1971), chairman 1955–68 References Engineering companies of England Manufacturing companies established in 1885 Tyre manufacturers of England 1885 establishments in England Companies based in Wiltshire British brands Defence companies of the United Kingdom Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Melksham Formula One tyre suppliers Diving equipment manufacturers Footwear