Avon Protection sells loss-making body armour site to US rival

Avon Protection has agreed to sell a major factory to a US rival as it winds down its loss-making armour business.

The Wiltshire-based headgear maker, which went public in 1949 after supplying gas masks during the Second World War, will hand over its Lexington facility in Kentucky to the ceramics manufacturer CoorsTek for a ‘modest cash consideration’.

The site makes ceramic plates, which are required for the body armour and ballistic vests worn by soldiers and the police. 

Avon expects to close the armour business in the second half of next year upon completing its contracts with customers. 

The decision was made in December last year following the failure in tests of a key body armour product.

It means Avon will be left with its respiratory and ballistic helmets businesses.

Avon chairman Bruce Thompson said they were ‘delighted to announce the sale of the Lexington facility’.