Wilmington, MA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/23/2006 --The history of BALDWIN & FRANCIS Ltd., dates from 1919 when the Baldwin Electrical Co., was founded by Mr. W.T. Baldwin. Whilst, on the 25th September 1922, a company under the name of Wilfrid Francis & Co. Ltd., was incorporated manufacturing a variety of electrical equipment.

• 1928, the Baldwin Electrical Co., was appointed sole agents for the sale of Lighting Gear, Switches and Control Gear manufactured by Wilfrid Francis & Co. Ltd.
• 1946, a take-over of Wilfrid Francis & Co. Ltd., was agreed and the company changed its name on the 1st February 1946, to BALDWIN & FRANCIS Ltd.
• During the period from the date of incorporation until 1978 the company remained a family business concentrating its main efforts on the design and manufacture of flameproof, (FLP), electrical equipment for mining.
• In 1978 the business was sold to Northern Engineering Industries, (NEI), and became the founding Business Unit of the Trading Company, NEI Mining Equipment Ltd.
• In 1989 NEI merged with Rolls Royce.
• The early 1990s saw further contraction within the UK coal industry and the decision was taken to close the facility in Altrincham and consolidate the electrical engineering activity onto the, Eyre Street, Sheffield site.
• Following a strategic review by Rolls Royce a decision was taken to divest itself of the Mining Equipment trading company and a Management Buy Out, (MBO), of the BALDWIN & FRANCIS Ltd., business was successfully made by its management in May 1994.
• In 2004 the senior management team raised funds for a second MBO, buying out the existing shareholders and enabling the management board to own a majority stake in the company.
• Subsequent, to the MBO, in the spring of 2005, BALDWIN & FRANCIS Ltd., finally closed the doors on its Eyre Street site, after 58 years, and moved to a new site in the revamped industrial sector of Sheffield – President Park.

Since returning to private ownership BALDWIN & FRANCIS Ltd., has continued to thrive both in Mining, general industrial and the Oil & Gas sectors - both at home and overseas developing new products to meet the continually changing market demands.

BALDWIN & FRANCIS Ltd. are pleased to announce that agreement has been reached to be the first European user to upgrade to the VISIBILITY.net.

Visibility Corporation (www.visibility.com) is a leading developer and supplier of business software solutions designed for the unique needs of project-based, engineer-to-order and to-order manufacturers. Visibility's Enterprise Application solutions help midsize manufacturers of complex products operate their businesses effectively. Visibility has an extensive customer base throughout North America and Europe and has the strongest representation of ERP among complex manufacturers.

VISIBILITY.net is an integrated ERP solution and more. Offering unparalleled functionality and integrated workflow, this browser-based solution cost effectively delivers the power of .NET-based Web services for use with either a Microsoft SQL Server™ or Oracle® database. Conducting business any place, any time, any where is a reality, deployable with unprecedented flexibility.

Visibility
www.visibility.com
Mark Thornton
marketing@visibility.com
011-44-161-927-2500