Fentons Limited was founded as a proprietary company, by Mr Herbert Fenton (AMIEE) in 1919. Mr Fenton, a Chartered Engineer and a visionary, started the company with just one employee. As the company progressed, Fentons was registered under the current name – Fentons Limited, under the Joint Stock Company Ordinance.

The first Chairman of Fentons Limited was Sir Henry de Mel. Over the years, the board comprised of many of Mr Fenton's British friends, and respected professionals of the time, one of whom was the Head of Ernst & Whinney (currently known as Ernst & Young).

The Fentons office in these years was situated at No. 1 Union Place, Colombo – 02.

For the longest time, Fentons focus was in electrical wiring of residences and the repair and service of electrical and electronic home appliances, including the wiring of motors. Fentons imported and distributed an impressive array of trusted brands in electrical equipment such as Peto and Radford accumulators, the forerunner of today's UPS.

By the 1930's, Fentons had diversified into telecommunications, and owned and operated manual telephone exchange systems, including those of Talawakale and Tillicultry Districts.

Fentons has also been agents for the following electrical equipment suppliers during this time :-

• Philips Glowlampworks, Ltd.
• British Insulated Cables Ltd.
• The Century Electric Co.
• The Century Electric Co.
• Peto & Radford.
• Higgs Motors, Birmingham.
• McDowell & Co. Ltd, Madras.
• Marconi Wireless Telegraphy Co., Ltd.
• F.W. Berk and Co., Ltd.
• Burndept Wireless, Ltd.
• Sir. W.G. Armstrong-Whitworth & Co. Ltd. (Hydro Electric Department)

Interestingly, records show that in the 1950's servicing of ceiling fans was charged at Rs 2/- per service. As the company grew, we expanded in the field of electrical engineering, taking on larger and more complex electrical work including the installation of mini hydros in the tea estates.

Fentons was also the agent for Marconi radios and Mr Marconi himself visited Ceylon and Fentons.

In the late 1950s, after the government took over the telecommunications sector, we went back to being an electrical and cabling specialist. It was during this period, that we became the largest electrical contractor in Sri Lanka. Fentons repeatedly won annual tenders s to wire government buildings, schools, hospitals that were being constructed by the Buildings Department.

In October of 1977, once import restrictions were lifted, we ventured back into telecommunications as a distributor for NEC Japan – one of the largest telecommunications specialists in the world.

The first telephone systems that we started installing were electro-mechanical systems, which were known as PMBX (Private Manual Branch Exchange). When the new Parliament in Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte was opened in 1982, it had a NEC PMBX installed by Fentons. By 1983, PMBX's had evolved into the PABX (Private Automatic Branch Exchange) with key telephones as a part of the system. As the telecommunications industry became more electronic based, the Fentons electronic engineering capacity developed.

Our proven capacity as electrical and electronic engineers allowed us to easily diversify into all the associated low voltage cabling and electronic building services starting with CCTV and fire detection.

After 1983, the technology for these systems started changing from electronic to digital based controlling.

By the mid 1990's Fentons was offering the full gamut of building services including access control systems, public address systems, fire protection, SMATV, and UPS. As technology expanded to demand local area networks (LAN) as essential infrastructure, Fentons pioneered in providing structured cabling, fibre optic cabling, and other specialised cabling services.

Throughout the new millennium, Fentons has under taken innovative challenges and delivered services well above the client's expectation. This together with our m2eticulous attention to detail has positioned us as the leading integrated solutions providers for Building Systems and ICT infrastructure.

Looking to the future, we hope to further revolutionise integrated solutions in Sri Lanka while preserving our heritage and maintaining the trust of our clients.