COMPANY
Company History
From its 1923 start as a textile company, Textron has grown into a global multi-industry leader driven by innovation and diversification.
TEXTRON THROUGH THE DECADES
Textron started as a small textile company in 1923, when 27-year-old Royal Little founded the Special Yarns Corporation in Boston. Sales that first year were just $75,000. Today that company has grown into a highly successful multi-industry enterprise recognized around the world for our network of powerful brands, world-class processes and talented people.
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1920s
The Founding Years
Special Yarns was enjoying success in Massachusetts, and in 1928 a Rhode Island competitor contacted Royal Little, asking him to take over the company. Little agreed to purchase Franklin Rayon Dyeing Company, and for the next two years, he maintained operations in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
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1930s
Textiles Expansion
In 1930, Little expanded Franklin Rayon’s Providence facility and moved Special Yarns to the new space. This was a banner year for the company; it sold about 4 percent of all rayon yarn sold in the United States. As was the case for many, however, growth slowed tremendously when the Great Depression struck hard in 1932.
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1940s
The War Years
As a major producer of parachutes and other textiles used during World War II, the ‘40s ushered in a period of growth and activity for the company, which was then doing business as Atlantic Rayon Corporation.
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1950s
The Birth of a Conglomerate
To offset yet another decline in the demand for textiles in 1952, Little developed a diversification strategy. He planned to maintain textile operations as an earnings base while acquiring non-textile businesses.
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1960s
A Clear Path to the Transportation Industry
At the end of 1960, Royal Little retired, but not before carving Textron’s imprint into the transportation industry with the purchases of two companies that are still part of Textron today: golf car manufacturer E-Z-GO and Textron Bell Aerospace—which included Bell Helicopter. Buying Bell balanced Textron's earnings base by increasing its government business.
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1970s
Survival Amid a Financial Crisis
The post-World War II economic boom came to a crashing halt during a decade marked by an oil crisis, a stock market crash and the demise of Richard Nixon’s presidency. Yet, amid this turmoil, while many conglomerates struggled to maintain positive cash flow, Textron persevered by winning new customers in the aerospace industry and by never wavering from its acquisition strategy.
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1980s
Positioned for Growth
In October 1984, Textron emerged newly strengthened for expansion in a rising economy. Straetz and Dolan realized that strategic acquisitions would remain essential for sustained growth.
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1990s
Preparation for the 21st Century
With only a decade left in the 20th century, Textron developed a laser-sharp focus on obtaining 100 percent of its revenues from its core businesses—aircraft, automotive, industrial and finance—and on increasing its international revenue as a source of growth.
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2000-2009
A New Century, A New Vision
Early in the new century’s first decade, Campbell immediately set a new vision for the corporation: to become the premier multi-industry company, recognized for its network of powerful brands, world-class enterprise processes and talented people. This shared vision became a unifying mission for Textron employees worldwide.
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2010-2019
Strengthening Textron’s position as an A&D company
Donnelly further penetrated the aviation market with the purchase of Beechcraft in 2014, forming a new business segment called Textron Aviation that includes three powerful brands: Beechcraft, Cessna and Hawker. By joining these three iconic brands, Textron Aviation brings 200+ years of combined aviation experience to the market and an installed customer base of more than 250,000 airplanes worldwide.
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2020 and Beyond
New Opportunities for Growth
In December 2022, Bell was awarded the development contract for the U.S. Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program. We were honored the Army selected the Bell V-280 Valor tiltrotor to modernize its Air Assault fleet and we look forward to delivering this transformational aircraft to the warfighters. This award builds on a decade of the V-280 Valor’s progress through design, manufacturing, and thorough testing to demonstrate that this aircraft will deliver on the FLRAA program requirements.