The company was founded in in Switzerland by Emil Haefely, an inventor who played a decisive role in the development of the electrotechnical industry at beginning of the th century. With the patent of the OIP Condenser type bushing in by Emil Haefely, the company became a pioneer in Oil type bushings. Trench France is part of the Trench & HSP Bushing group belonging to Siemens with locations in France (Trench France), Germany (HSP) and China (THVS). This close cooperation for innovation and design is supported by Siemens process and manufacturing know how. In , the Trench Group decided for Trench France to focus specifically on bushings by making extensive manufacturing investments and improving all customer relevant processes.

In Trench Austria was established by Alois Esslinger, an electrical engineer known beyond the borders of Austria. The former name of the company until was Spezielektra Esslinger KG. From the very beginning, one focus area of the company was the development and production of reactors for electrical power system. The use of glass fiber reinforced plastic as part of the insulation of reactors was revolutionary in the s . Trench Austria gained significant international reputation in the s when supplying high current and high voltage test reactors for leadin test laboratories like KEMA in Arnheim/The Netherlands. In Spezielektra was merged with Trench Electric Toronto/Canada. This was also the starting point for the foundation of the Trench Group. Today Trench Austria in Leonding near Linz produces reactor/coil products for medium and high voltage electrical systems, both in dry type as well as oil immersed technology and is one of the worldwide leading companies in this special area of the electrical industry.

Trench Brazil was established in Contagem, Minas Gerais State, Brazil in and moved to Jundiai, Sao Paulo State, Brazil in . Manufacturing of the first reactors and line traps began in July of . Trench Brasil was established by the Trench Group to better serve our customer needs in South America and to improve the position in the global market. The technology and manufacturing techniques used by the company in Brazil are all from Trench Limited Canada who transferred its reactor and line trap technology to Trench Brasil during the plant construction phase. Today Siemens Brazil manufactures Air Core Reactors from up to kV, KVA to MVA and Line Traps from kV to kV , to mH.

Located in Pickering, Ontario, Trench Limited’s Instrument Transformer Division (ITD) is the leading manufacturer of oil insulated instrument transformers for voltage and current measurement. All products are designed to the highest standards of high accuracy revenue metering and protection applications, and also conforms to all ANSI/IEEE, CSA and IEC requirements. The new instrument transformer factory is sprawled over , sq ft (, sq meter) and includes a manufacturing plant, a -storey office and world-class R&D facilities. With a strong market position in North America and global reputation on many world markets, Trench Canada is one of the leading factories worldwide for instrument transformers.