Bowers & Wilkins history

In 1968, Audioscript in the Netherlands became the first international distributor appointed.

In 1969, the first Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) was built and christened World Chief.

In 1970, the ionovac-tweeter equipped P2 speakers produced were licensed by Sony, produced in Worthing to be distributed in Japan.

In 1972 a new production facility was opened in Meadow Road, Worthing.

B&W received the Queen's Award for Export in 1973, and built programme content monitors for the BBC.

The 1976 DM6 loudspeaker introduced Kevlar cones and phase linear filter and enclosure design.

By 1979, World-Wide had a fleet of over 200 vessels, managing the largest independently-owned bulk shipping fleet in the world with a total tonnage of 20.5 million deadweight tons – more than the US and Soviet merchant fleets combined.

The origin of BW Offshore dates back to 1982, as a department of Bergesen d.y., when Berge Sisar (an LPG FPSO later replaced by Berge Troll) was installed in Angola.

Research into amplifiers and active filters leads to the Active One loudspeaker, branded under the name of John Bowers in 1984.

Sir Y.K. Pao retired in 1986, and his first son-in-law Dr Helmut Sohmen became Chairman of World-Wide Shipping.

Also in 1987, Dr John Dibb joined the company, later to become responsible for many speaker designs, notably several signature models.

Increasing demand led to by opening an additional production site at Silverdale, Worthing, West Sussex in 1992.

The 1993 'Nautilus' Loudspeaker was officially launched and still remains the company's flagship product.

In 1998, Some of the Nautilus technology was introduced in the somewhat more affordable Nautilus 800 series.

World-Wide Shipping acquired N&T Argonaut (NTA) in 1999 and together with the delivery of six newbuildings, this helped increase World-Wide’s fleet size by 24 ships in the space of three months.

In 2002 B&W moved its Worthing production, warehousing and head office to a new £7 million location on a former landfill site in Dale Road, Worthing.

In 2003, World-Wide acquired Bergesen d.y.

Launched in June 2007, it is an online community focused on issues and discussions relating to high quality sound.

In May 2008, Bowers and Wilkins started the Bowers & Wilkins Music Club – now known simply as Society of Sound, returning the company into the music business.

In 2010, BW formed a joint venture with Marubeni on BW's fleet of LNG carriers on charter to NLNG.

In 2013, BW LPG acquired the entire VLGC fleet of Maersk Tankers.

In 2014, BW Group acquired 50% of the chemical tanker pool WOMAR, and subsequently acquired the chemical tanker fleet of Stream Tankers.

In October 2017 Bowers & Wilkins became the official headphones and loudspeaker partner of Abbey Road Studios.

In 2018, BW acquired a controlling stake in Hafnia, a major player in the product tanker space based in Denmark.

In 2019, BW Group purchased a majority stake in Epic Gas from key shareholders, and launched unconditional tender offer.

In October 2020 Sound United LLC acquired Bowers & Wilkins.

BW Offshore invested in Ideol S.A. in 2021 to create BW Ideol, a floating offshore wind company.