History

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One of the benefits that we can bring both to our clients and the people, like you, who work with us, is a genuine wealth of experience.

Our ability to consistently deliver world-class results and services has been carefully shaped over the years and, indeed, the decades.

Although our origins date back even further, Foster Wheeler was formed in 1927 from a merger of the Power Speciality Company (which replaced Water Works Supply Company, created by the Foster family in 1884) and the Wheeler Condenser & Engineering Company, whose roots go back to 1891.

The corporate headquarters were originally in New York City but later moved to Clinton, New Jersey.

One of the qualities that has always characterised this company is vision, backed up by expertise and commitment. So from the earliest years of our business we looked to broaden its horizons. Our earliest expansion outside of the United States was to Europe, when in 1920 (still as the Wheeler Condensing & Engineering Company) we opened offices in London.

The subsequent period saw continued growth. We opened our first Houston office in 1942, followed by further expansion in Europe: first France (1929), Italy (1957) and then Spain (1965). A South African office was also opened in 1970, as the major engineering and construction aspects to our operations helped shape a modern, evolving world.

Of course that's something we continue to do - in fact now, more than ever. As Asia becomes an ever more important market, we can already demonstrate a successful history, having established operations in Singapore, in 1989, and Thailand in 1992. In addition, you can also find our engineers elsewhere in Canada, Turkey, Switzerland, Russia, Chile, Malaysia, India and China, with a sales team and project teams in many, many more countries. In 2008 alone, our Global E&C Group won projects in 64 countries!

Why not look more closely at some of the milestones in our past? What we'd like to know is whether, in the future, you could add even more.