1915 Charles Leslie Parsons establishes Charles Parsons & Co. at Kent House, Liverpool Street, Sydney with plant and machinery worth 270 pounds, plus outstanding orders and invoices for 842 pounds.
1918 Charles Parsons takes over William Heron & Co, Woolen Merchants. This was the first of more than 50 acquisitions.
1930 The Great Depression and faced with losses and bad debts, the Company knows it will struggle to meet the payroll. Charles L Parsons resigns himself to laying off members of his 20 full time staff. Notices are served with regret, yet workers are reinstated when all remaining staff offer to work on reduced pay. “We’ve got a fine team here. If we’re going to go down, we’ll go down with the colours flying.” Full wages restored by end 1931.
1930’s & 40’s Charles Parsons continued to experience sustained growth through the next 2 decades, moving to larger premises and building an infrastructure to support its continued growth.
By 1955, Charles Parsons has operations in every mainland state. Charles Riviere Parsons was becoming a respected force in the industry and by 1958, had assumed the role of Managing Director.
In the 1960’s, Charles Parsons pioneered an in-house laboratory to comprehensively test fabrics and began exporting to New Zealand.
 1972 saw the company diversify into home-wares goods which remains a major focus of Charles Parsons today.
In 1975, Charles Parsons International was established in Hong Kong.
1980’s Charles Parsons continues to expand and diversify throughout the 80’s and successfully combines the strength and character born of its family owned origins with entrepreneurial and competitive spirit on a world scale. Charles Vincent Parsons concentrates more on his role as Group Managing Director.
1999 Charles Parsons Office opens in Shanghai providing a strategically important presence in China. It still operates as a world class conversion and manufacturing base for the company’s operations.
2009 Charles Parsons acquires iconic NZ clothing brand Line 7.
Peter Allard, Managing Director, Charles Parsons (NZ) Ltd says:
"We are really excited to have acquired this iconic NZ brand and we believe that there are tremendous synergies between the core values of Line 7, the technical sourcing capabilities that we have on hand as a long term supplier to Line 7, and the overall culture of our company."
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