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The British Leyland Motor Corporation ("BLMC"), was a vehicle manufacturing company formed in the United Kingdom in 1968. Ultimately it would become nationalised as British Leyland then known just as BL.

The History

BLMC was created in 1968 by the merger of British Motor Holdings (BMH) and Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC), encouraged by the Wilson Labour Government (1964–1970). The merger combined most of the remaining independent British car manufacturing companies and included car, bus and truck manufacturers and more diverse enterprises including construction equipment, refrigerators, metal casting companies, road surface manufacturers; in all nearly 100 different companies. The new corporation was organised into seven divisions under its new chairman Sir Donald Stokes (formerly the chairamn of LMC).

The company became an infamous monument to the industrial turmoil that plagued Britain in the 1970s. At its peak, BLMC owned nearly 40 different manufacturing plants across the country. Even before the merger BMH had included marques that were in theory competitors though selling basically similar cars. To this was added the competition from other marques Rover against Jaguar at the higher end, Triumph with its family cars and sports cars against Austin Morris. The result was a broad product range which was incoherent and full of duplication. This, combined with serious industrial relations problems (principally, the company's relations with hard-line trade unions of the time), the 1973 oil crisis, the three-day week, high inflation and ineffectual management meant that BL became an unmanageable and financially crippled behemoth whose bankruptcy in 1975 was inevitable.

Sir Don Ryder was asked to undertake an enquiry into the position of the company, and his report, The Ryder Report, was presented to the government in April 1975. Following the report's recommendations the organisation was drastically restructured and the second Wilson Labour Government (1974–1976) took control by creating a new holding company British Leyland Limited (BL) of which it was the major shareholder. The company was now organised into the following four divisionsBL Booklet - Graduate opportunities with British Leyland:

  • Leyland Cars - the largest car manufacturer in the UK, employing some 128,000 people at 36 locations, and with a production capacity of one million vehicles per year
  • Leyland Truck and Bus - the largest commercial and passenger vehicle manufacturer in the UK, employing 31,000 people at 12 locations, producing 38,000 trucks, 8,000 buses and 19,000 tractors per year
  • Leyland Special Products - the miscellaneous collection of other acquired businesses, itself structured into five sub-divisions:

In 1984 Jaguar Cars became independent once more, through a public sale of its shares. In 1986 BL changed its name to Rover Group and In 1987 the Trucks Division merged with the Dutch DAF company to form DAF NV, trading as Leyland DAF in the UK and as DAF in the Netherlands. Also in 1987 the bus business was spun-off into a new company Leyland Bus, the result of a management buyout.

In 1988 the remaining Rover Group business was sold by the British Government to British Aerospace (BAe).

Many of the brands were divested over time and continue to exist to this day. The heir to most of the volume car business was MG Rover which collapsed in April 2005.

Timelines

Note: The car brands of BSA were divested, BSA was not merged into Jaguar.

Merged Companies

The car firms (and car brands) which eventually merged to form the company are as follows.

The dates given are those of the first car of each name, but these are often debatable as each car may be several years in development.

Other Merger Events

Several of these names (including Jaguar, Land Rover and Mini) are now in other hands. The history of the mergers and other key events is as follows:

History of Divestments

  • 1975 Innocenti passed to Alejandro de Tomaso
  • 1978 Land Rover separated from Rover to form a separate company, still part of BL
  • 1979 Collaboration with Honda begins, sacking of Derek Robinson ("Red Robbo")
  • 1978 Closure of Triumph assembly plant in Speke - production moved to Canley
  • 1980 Closure of MG and Triumph assembly plants in Abingdon and Canley
  • 1981 Closure of Rover-Triumph plant in Solihull
  • 1981 Alvis sold to United Scientific Holdings
  • 1982 Michael Edwardes steps down as Chairman, British Leyland renamed Austin Rover Group (ARG)
  • 1984 Morris Ital goes out of production, signalling the end of the Morris badge
  • 1984 Jaguar floated off (including Daimler and the US rights to Vanden Plas); bought by Ford in 1989
  • 1986 Austin Rover renamed Rover Group, Austin badges disappear the following year
  • 1986 Leyland Trucks & Vans sold to DAF. Vans became independent LDV in 1993, and Trucks became Leyland Trucks. Leyland Trucks was taken over by US giant PACCAR in 1998 and integrated with Foden.
  • 1986 Leyland Bus floated off; bought by Volvo in 1988
  • 1987 Unipart, BL's spare parts division acquired by management buy-out
  • 1988 Rover Group privatised; sold to British Aerospace
  • 1994 Rover Group sold to BMW; collaboration with Honda ends
  • 2000 BMW decides to break up and sell the Rover empire; Land Rover sold to Ford
  • 2000 BMW MINI, Triumph, and Riley trademarks retained by BMW, but BMW's other interests sold off
  • 2000 Remainder of company became independent as the MG Rover Group
  • 2005 MG Rover goes into administration with huge debts, and production of all vehicles at the Longbridge plant is suspended.

List of notable BL and BMC and related models (up to 1986)

Competing models

In some cases, British Leyland continued to produce competing models from the merged companies at different sites for many years. However, any benefits from the broader number of models were far outweighed by higher development costs and greatly reduced economies of scale.

Badge-engineered models

In contrast to the continued development of competing models, British Leyland continued the practice of badge engineering of models which had started under BMC; selling essentially the same vehicle under two (or more) different marques.

See also

Notes

External links

  • Model-by-model history http://austin-rover.co.uk
  • http://www.team.net/www/morgan/history/linage.html
  • http://www.mgxtreme.co.uk/history/history.php
  • http://www.alvis.plc.uk
  • http://www.ownajag.com/jaguar-history.html
  • http://members.fortunecity.com/routeman68/history.htm - Leyland Truck & Bus
  • http://www.dloc.org.uk/ - Daimler, Lanchester and BSA

Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United Kingdom | Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange | 1968 establishments | Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom

British Leyland Motor Corporation | British Leyland | ブリティッシュ・レイランド | British Leyland Motor Corporation | British Leyland Motor Corporation

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "British Leyland Motor Corporation".

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