Our History

IQD can trace its origins in Crewkerne to the end of 1973, when entrepreneur Hugh Robinson took his young company Interface International into the quartz crystal business servicing a contract for low frequency crystals in filters for FDM equipment, with Cable & Wireless.

Operating from an office in Market Street, Crewkerne, Somerset, rent was just £1 per week and much of the trade in the early days was connected to the Ham Radio business and PMR (Private Mobile Radio).

Through a network of chance meetings and shrewd appointments, quartz crystal sales grew and the portfolio of products expanded to include packaged oscillators to service the VHF and UHF repeater stations popping up in the early 70s.

Development of the business has taken many turns, including significant growth and the necessary moving of office and warehousing premises. In fact in 1997, IQD appeared in the UK’s top businesses for growth. Fast forward through another 20 years and through a few business acquisitions, in 2017 IQD was acquired by German electronics giant, Wurth Elektronik eiSos, a subsidiary of the larger Wurth Group.

We’re going from strength to strength, and today IQD continues to enjoy remarkable growth becoming a significant global supplier of frequency control products across a wide range of industries and applications from national defence projects, consumer electronics, in medical wearables, transport navigation, 5G network technology and IoT applications, to name just a few.

We’re proud to have been around for 50 years – here’s to the next 50!