The company has its origins in the 1850s and was incorporated in 1926.
After incorporation in 1926 James Pain & Son Ltd was primarily concerned with the manufacture of pyrotechnics.
In 1960, Bryant & May acquired the company and later in 1962, acquired the Wessex Aircraft Engineering Company Ltd., which manufactured both pyrotechnic products for the military and commercial fireworks. The Wessex Aircraft Engineering Company Ltd. was located at the site Chemring Countermeasures UK occupies to this day (High Post, just north of Salisbury, Wiltshire).
By 1965, Bryant & May had amalgamated the businesses of these two companies under James Pain & Son Ltd and subsequently renamed it Pains Wessex Ltd.
In 1973, Bryant & May acquired Schermuly Ltd and that company’s business was transferred to the High Post site by 1981.
In 1976, firework manufacture ceased totally and Pains Wessex Ltd. then concentrated on pyrotechnics manufacture (although to this day, Chemring Countermeasures Ltd remains known locally as ‘the fireworks factory’).
Bryant & May was subsequently sold to a series of companies before being owned by the Allegheny International Group of America, an enormous group of companies trading in a vast variety of products.
In 1985, the Chemring Group plc acquired the Pains Wessex business as well as Allegheny’s military & marine pyrotechnic business.