The company was incorporated in 1980 as Textlite Ltd, an Irish Subsidiary of a Dutch company specialising in the manufacture of single line LED moving message displays for the retail market. There was a MBO by the Managing Director in 1988 and as part of a new direction and strategy, the company name was changed to Data Display in 1991.

In 1993, Data Display received the ISO 9001 certificate and has continued to strive towards quality with World Class Manufacturing programs. To fund expansion with the creation of overseas offices, ICC Venture Capital invested in Data Display.

In 1999 the factory building was extended to 60,000 sqft to increase capacity for large projects. The company received the AIB Exporter of the Year award in 1999 for its continued investment in Research and Development.