Advance Components

Advance was founded in about 1932 by A. W. Stapleton to design and manufacture electronic test and measuring instruments and control equipment. The original location was at Walthamstow.

In 1954, the company became Advance Components and made a number of acquisitions in the early 60’s expanding their range into oscilloscopes, instruments and electronic counters. Advance was particularly well known for its range of Signal Generators.

In 1964, the name was again changed to Advance Electronics and a new headquarters factory was built at Hainault. Three years later another new factory was built at Bishops Stortford.

By 1972, the business had 1200 employees and it had become a public company.

In 1974, Advance Electronics was taken-over by Gould Inc of Chicago.

In 2000, there was a Management buy-out and a separation of some of the business streams to concentrate the work of Advance Electronics on the design and manufactures of a wide range of power conditioning and UPS products at its Wrexham site.