Thorn EMI
Thorn EMI was a major British company involved in consumer electronics, music, defence and retail.
1979 EMI was acquired by Thorn Electrical Industries to form Thorn EMI[1] one of the largest operating companies in the UK.
Thorn EMI's business covered four principal areas of activity;
- Retail / rentals ( Radio Rentals, DER and Rumbelows (which was sold in 1995))
- Defence
- Music
- Consumer electronics.
From its formation until the mid-1990s Thorn EMI was one of the United Kingdom's largest defence companies.
EMI's film division was renamed Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment. The newly merged company continued the film interests EMI had acquired over the preceding decade; these had included the former Associated British Picture Corporation, and their facilities at Elstree Studios, Shenley Road, Borehamwood and ABC Cinemas.
Also owned the Kenwood Manufacturing Co.
1980 The engineering group of Thorn EMI consisted of[2]:
- Thorn Industrial Control Engineering
- Thorn General Engineering
- EMI Defence Electronics
- EMI Industrial Electronics
- Thorn-Ericsson Telecommunications
1981 Thorn Heating was 1 of 6 boiler makers investigated for collusion in raising prices[3]
1981 Developed a compact fluorescent light bulb, spending almost £1 million on the project up to February 1981. The rival at this time was Philips.
1981 Sold the entertainments interests to Trust Houses Forte, including 3 theatres.
1981 Thorn EMI Video was established; this division released films on video from various film companies.
1982 Parkinson Cowan (a subsidiary of Thorn EMI) was reorganised and split into two:[4]
- Thorn EMI Industrial Boilers - the well-known business continued to trade but under this name.
- Thorn EMI Energy Development - newly set-up to exploit Parkinson technology in new product areas.
1982 Thorn EMI was involved in manufacture of video recorders, sale and rental of the equipment, production of video programmes and was preparing to manufacture video disc players[5]
1983 Sold the share capital of Monks and Crane Ltd, of Stafford, to its management[6].
1983 Sold Foster Electrical Supplies to Parkfield Group
1984 Thorn EMI Video produced 3 made-for-video films for the British market: Cross Country (film) (1977), and Strange Invaders (1984) and Bloodbath at the House of Death (1984). Thorn EMI became popular with rental stores. In the USA, Thorn EMI released films on video from various film companies including Orion Pictures (The Terminator, First Blood) and New Line Cinema (The Evil Dead, Xtro).
1985 Thorn EMI joined HBO, and formed Thorn EMI HBO Video.
1985 Kenwey Domestic Appliances Ltd changed its name to Thorn EMI Small Domestic Appliances Ltd and then to Thorn EMI Kenwood Small Appliances Ltd[7]
1986 Cannon films bought Thorn EMI's video library. Cannon was eventually just called HBO Video in 1987.
1986 FKI Electricals acquired the Mechanical Engineering and Components Division[8].
1986 Sold the heating division to Myson
1986 Thorn EMI Kenwood Small Appliances Ltd changed its name to Kenwood Ltd[9]
1988 Electrolux took over the appliance division of Thorn EMI which brought with it brands including Tricity, Bendix, and Parkinson Cowan gas cookers[10] and Moffat gas fires[11]
1989 The EMI label expanded greatly - Thorn EMI bought a 50% interest in Chrysalis Records, buying the outstanding 50% in 1991.
1992 In one of its highest-profile and most expensive acquisitions, Thorn EMI took over Richard Branson's Virgin Records.
Thorn Security installed and serviced all types of electronic security systems from their bases around the UK.
The Business Communications division, based in Marlow, provided hotels with televisions and related equipment. It also embarked upon a project called Hotel 3000 which provided interactive Set-Top-Boxes for hotel rooms in the late 1980s.
1990 Thorn EMI acquired the MEL division of Philips. This company was involved in radar, electronic warfare and communications. The MEL communications business was sold to Thomson-CSF.
Ferguson Radio Corporation was owned by Thorn EMI and it made consumer electronics like TV sets, VCRs, etc. TVs were designed and manufactured by Ferguson in the UK until around the early 1990s, although before this, some Thomson-designed models were introduced to the Fergsuon range of TVs for sale in the UK. Some of these Thomson-based models were even manufactured in the UK, although in later years, these models were made outside the UK by Thomson.
By 1992, the Ferguson TV factory in Gosport had closed, ending a long period of manufacturing of Ferguson TVs in the UK.
1995 the various defence businesses were sold:
- Thorn EMI Electro Optics to Pilkington Optronics
- Thomson Thorn Missile Electronics to Thomson-CSF
- Thorn Sensors Group to Racal (to become Racal-Thorn, of Wells)
1996 On August 16, Thorn EMI shareholders voted in favour of demerger proposals, completing the process of focusing the company which became EMI Group plc, with the electronics and rentals divisions divested as Thorn plc which was later acquired by Future Rentals, a subsidiary of Nomura Group in 1998. It is now defunct.
1996 Tyco International bought Thorn Security for £138million[12]
1997 Tyco International acquired ADT[13]. The Thorn Security business was absorbed into ADT and all but a handful of the famous red 'THORN' bellboxes replaced. However, the Fire products especially are still to be found in many premises and until recently spares and complete systems of Thorn heritage continued to be manufactured by ADT.
2001 Kenwood was acquired by De’Longhi SpA, an Italian private company[14]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Times, 14 November 1979
- ↑ The Times July 31, 1980
- ↑ The Times, Jun 30, 1981
- ↑ The Engineer 1982/01/21
- ↑ The Times Jan. 15, 1982
- ↑ The Times, 26 May 1983
- ↑ Companies house filing
- ↑ Funding Universe [1]
- ↑ Companies house filing
- ↑ The Times, January 02, 1988
- ↑ The Times Apr. 11, 1987
- ↑ The Times Feb. 14, 1997
- ↑ The Times Mar. 18, 1997
- ↑ 2001 Annual report
- [2] Wikipedia