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British Leyland Motor Corporation
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British Leyland was a vehicle manufacturing company formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC). It was partly nationalised in 1975 with the government creating a new holding company called British Leyland Ltd which became BL Ltd (later BL plc) in 1978. It incorporated much of the British owned motor vehicle industry, and held 40% of the UK car market, with roots going back to 1895.
Despite containing profitable marques such as Jaguar, Rover and Land Rover, as well as the best selling Mini, British Leyland had a troubled history.
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Encyclopedia
British Leyland was a vehicle manufacturing company formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC). It was partly nationalised in 1975 with the government creating a new holding company called British Leyland Ltd which became BL Ltd (later BL plc) in 1978. It incorporated much of the British owned motor vehicle industry, and held 40% of the UK car market, with roots going back to 1895.
Despite containing profitable marques such as Jaguar, Rover and Land Rover, as well as the best selling Mini, British Leyland had a troubled history. In 1986 it was renamed as the Rover Group, later to become MG Rover Group, which went bankrupt in 2005, bringing an end to mass car production by British owned manufacturers - with MG becoming part of Chinese Nanjing Automobile.
Jaguar and Land-Rover (Land-Rover previously owned by BMW) were sold in March 2008 by Ford to TATA Motors of India, who also bought the three brand names: Daimler, Lanchester, and Rover - the intellectual property rights for which had been bought by Shanghai, Nanjing bought MG brand.
History
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BLMC was created in 1968 by the merger of British Motor Holdings (BMH) and Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC), encouraged by Tony Benn as chair of the Industrial Reorganisation Committee created by the Wilson Labour Government (1964–1970). At the time, LMC was a successful manufacturer, while BMH was perilously close to collapse. The Government was hopeful LMC's expertise would revive the ailing BMH. 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 arranged into seven divisions under its new chairman, Sir Donald Stokes (formerly the chairman of LMC).
While BMH was the UK's largest car manufacturer (producing over twice as many cars as LMC), it offered a range of dated vehicles, including the Morris Minor which was introduced in 1948 and the Austin Cambridge and Morris Oxford, which dated back to 1959. After the merger, Lord Stokes was horrified to find that BMH had no plans to replace these elderly designs. Also, BMH's design efforts immediately prior to the merger had focussed on unfortunate niche market models such as the Austin Maxi (which was underdeveloped and with an appearance hampered by using the doors from the larger Austin 1800) and the Austin 3 litre, which was a car with no discernible place in the market.
BMH had produced several successful cars, such as the Mini and the Austin/Morris 1100/1300 range (which at the time was the UK's biggest selling car). While these cars had been advanced at the time of their introduction, the Mini was not highly profitable and the 1100/1300 was facing more modern competition.
The lack of attention to development of new mass market models meant that BMH had nothing in the way of new models in the pipeline to effectively compete with popular rivals such as Ford's Escort and Ford Cortina.
Immediately, Lord Stokes instigated plans to design and introduce new models quickly. The first result of this crash program was the Morris Marina in early 1971. It used parts from various BL models with new bodywork to produce BL's mass market competitor. It was one of the strongest selling cars in Britain during the 1970s, although by the end of production in 1980 it was widely regarded as a dismal product which had damaged the company's reputation. The Austin Allegro (replacement for the 1100/1300 ranges), launched in 1973, earned a similarly unwanted reputation over its 10-year production life.
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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 theoretically competing marques which were in fact selling substantially similar "badge engineered" cars. To this was added the competition from yet more, previously LMC marques. Rover competed with Jaguar at the expensive end of the market, and Triumph with its family cars and sports cars against Austin, Morris and MG. The result was a product range which was incoherent and full of duplication. In addition, in consequent attempts to establish British Leyland as a brand in consumers' minds in and outside the UK, print ads and spots were produced, causing confusion rather than attraction for buyers. This, combined with serious industrial relations problems (principally, the company's relations with trade unions; 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 assured.
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 Labour Government (1974–1979) took control by creating a new holding company British Leyland Limited (BL) of which the government was the major shareholder. The company was now organised into the following four divisions:
- Leyland Cars (later BL 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 (including a joint venture with the National Bus Company) and 19,000 tractors per year
- Leyland Special Products – the miscellaneous collection of other acquired businesses, itself structured into five sub-divisions:
- Leyland International – responsible for the export of cars, trucks and buses, and responsible for manufacturing plants in Africa, India and Australia, employing 18,000 people
There was positive news for BL at the end of 1976 when its new Rover SD1 executive car was voted European Car of the Year, having gained plaudits for its innovative design.
In 1977 Sir Michael Edwardes was appointed Chief Executive and Leyland Cars was split up into Austin Morris (the volume car business) and Jaguar Rover Triumph (JRT) (the specialist or upmarket division). Austin Morris included MG. Land Rover and Range Rover were later separated from JRT to form the Land Rover Group. JRT later split up into Rover-Triumph and Jaguar Car Holdings (which included Daimler)
In 1978 the company formed a new group for its commercial vehicle interests, BL Commercial Vehicles (BLCV) under managing director David Abell. The following companies moved under this new umbrella:
- Leyland Vehicles Limited (trucks, tractors and buses)
- Alvis Limited (military vehicles)
- Coventry Climax Limited (fork lift trucks and specialist engines)
- Self-Changing Gears Limited (heavy-duty transmissions)
BLCV and the Land Rover Group later merged to become Land Rover Leyland.
In 1979 British Leyland Ltd was renamed to simply BL Ltd (later BL plc) and its subsidiary which acted as a holding company for all the other companies within the group The British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd to BLMC Ltd.
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BL's fortunes took another much-awaited rise in October 1980 with the launch of the Austin Metro, a modern three-door hatchback which gave buyers a more modern and practical alternative to the iconic but ageing Mini. This went on to be one of the most popular cars in Britain of the 1980s.
In 1982 most of the car division became the Austin Rover Group marking the end of the Morris and Triumph marques although Jaguar and Daimler remained in a separate company called Jaguar Car Holdings.
In 1984 Jaguar Cars became independent once more, through a public sale of its shares. Ford subsequently acquired Jaguar. In 1986 BL changed its name to Rover Group and in 1987 the Trucks Division - Leyland Vehicles merged with the Dutch DAF company to form DAF NV, trading as Leyland DAF in the UK and as DAF in the Netherlands. In 1987 the bus business was spun-off into a new company called Leyland Bus. This was the result of a management buyout who decided to sell the company to the Bus & Truck division of Volvo in 1988.
In 1988 the remaining Rover Group business was sold by the British Government to British Aerospace (BAe). They subsequently sold the business to BMW, which, after initially seeking to retain the whole business, decided to only retain the Cowley operations for MINI production and close the Longbridge factory. Longbridge, along with the Rover and MG marques, was taken on by MG Rover which went bankrupt in April 2005, only to resume production two years later - though initially with just a sports car and upper-range saloon built in both Britain and China due to the takeover of MG Rover's assets by Nanjing Automobile.
Many of the brands were divested over time and continue to exist to this day.
One of BL's key brands, Austin, is subject of a proposed revival by Nanjing Automobile as cheaper alternatives to the sporty MG saloons and hatchbacks, though no definite timescale for the reintroduction of this historic brand has been announced.
Timelines
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:
- 1910 Daimler purchased by the armaments-and-motorbikes engineering company BSA
- 1931 Lanchester purchased by BSA (last Lanchester 1956)
- 1938 Morris incorporates Wolseley and Riley forming the Nuffield Organisation
- 1944 Standard acquire Triumph, forming Standard Triumph
- 1946 Austin acquire Vanden Plas
- 1952 The Nuffield Organisation and Austin merge to form the British Motor Corporation (BMC)
- 1960 Jaguar buy the car-making interests of BSA, including Daimler
- 1961 Leyland Motors acquire Standard Triumph
- 1962 Leyland Motors acquired ACV, the renamed AEC (Associated Equipment Company) company.
- 1963 Jaguar acquire the engine and fork lift truck manufacturing company Coventry Climax
- 1965 Rover acquire Alvis
- 1966 BMC merge with Jaguar to form British Motor Holdings (BMH)
- 1967 Leyland absorb Rover
- 1968 Leyland merge with British Motor Holdings to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC)
- 1969 Joint venture with the National Bus Company to build Leyland National buses, and also to continue the manufacture of Bristol buses previously built by the NBC.
- 1970s Majority stake in Danish partner DAB, to form Leyland-DAB, producer of the Leyland-DAB articulated bus
- 1972 BLMC take control of Innocenti
- 1974 Cessation of production of cars in Australia
- 1975 Publication of the Ryder Report, British Leyland effectively nationalised due to financial difficulties with new holding company formed British Leyland Ltd later BL plc with the government as the principal (but not the only) shareholder
- 1977 Michael Edwardes appointed as Chairman by Labour Government. Begins massive cull of excess BL assets.
- 1982 BL buys out the National Bus Company from the bus plant joint venture
Divestments
- 1969 The last Riley Elf, 1300, and 4/72 models were built, thus ending the Riley marque
- 1975 Innocenti passed to Alejandro de Tomaso
- 1976 Final Wolseley, a 2200, is built, thus ending the Wolseley marque
- 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 and Alvis plc formed
- 1982 Michael Edwardes steps down as Chairman, BL Cars Ltd renamed Austin Rover Group (ARG)
- 1982 Leyland Tractors sold to Marshall Tractors, tractor production at Bathgate assembly plant ends
- 1983 Closure of Bristol bus plant, production transferred to Leyland National plant at Workington
- 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
- 1984 Final Triumph Acclaim rolls off the production line, ending the Triumph name
- 1985 Closure of Bathgate truck assembly plant
- 1986 BL plc renamed Rover Group, Austin badges disappear the following year
- 1986 Leyland Bus floated off; bought by Volvo in 1988
- 1987 Leyland Trucks division (including Freight Rover vans) merged with DAF to form DAF NV/Leyland DAF. Vans became independent as LDV in 1993, as did Trucks as Leyland Trucks. Leyland Trucks was taken over by US giant PACCAR in 1998 and integrated with Foden.
- 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
- 1994 Maestro and Montego go out of production.
- 1998 Metro/100-series goes out of production - the last of the former Austin models.
- 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 is taken over by Nanjing Automobile.
- 2006 Ford acquires the rights to the Rover brand name from BMW, though without any immediate plans for using it on production cars..
- 2008 Ford completes the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors, of India
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.
Sadly, potential benefits associated with rationalising parts usage were lost, as for example, the company made two completely different 1.3 litre engines (BMC A series and the Triumph 1.3 litre), two different 1.5 litre engines (BMC E series and Triumph), four different 2 litre engines (4 cylinder O series, 4 cylinder Triumph Dolomite, 4 cylinder Rover and 6 cylinder Triumph) and two completely different V8 engines (Triumph OHC 3 litre V8 and Rover 3.5 litre V8).
Examples of competing cars were:
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.
Principal UK factories
This list is incomplete.
- Abingdon, Oxfordshire. The MG sports car plant. Closed in 1980.
- Alcester, Warwickshire. Former Maudslay plant, latterly making AEC dump trucks. Sold in early 1970s.
- Basingstoke, Hampshire. Former Thornycroft plant, latterly a specialist heavy truck plant. Closed in 1969.
- Bathgate, West Lothian. A new plant opened by BMC in 1961 to manufacture light trucks and tractors. Tractor assembly ended in 1982, truck assembly in 1985, and the plant closed in 1986.
- Browns Lane, Coventry. Main Daimler and Jaguar plant. Daimler bus production transferred to Leyland 1973, then purely a car plant. Closed by Ford in 2005.
- Canley, Coventry. Originally owned by Standard, latterly the main Triumph car plant. Closed in 1980.
- Castle Bromwich, West Midlands. Plant taken over completely by Jaguar in 1977. Current main Jaguar assembly plant after the closure of the Browns Lane Coventry plant in 2005.
- Cowley, Oxfordshire. Comprising the original main Morris plant and the Pressed Steel plant, and one of the largest British car production sites throughout the BLMC era. In 1993 the original Morris plant was sold to developers and demolished, with car production being concentrated on the former Pressed Steel site which is now owned by BMW and used for assembly of the modern MINI.
- Cross Gates, Leeds. Charles H. Roe bus bodywork plant. Closed 1984, but reopened as Optare bus plant.
- Brislington, Bristol. Former Bristol Commercial Vehicles bus plant, initially 25% owned, from 1969 50% owned, from 1982 100% owned. Closed 1983.
- Kingsbury Lane, London. The Vanden Plas limousine factory, latterly used to assemble the Daimler DS420. Closed in 1979.
- Fallings Park, Wolverhampton. Former Guy truck and bus plant. Closed in 1982.
- Holyhead Road, Coventry. Former Alvis plant, latterly producing military vehicles. Closed by Alvis plc 1998.
- Leyland, Lancashire. Former Leyland Motors truck and bus plant. Bus production (under Volvo ownership) ceased 1991. Truck manufacture continues under PACCAR ownership.
- Lillyhall (Workington), Cumbria. Bus plant opened 1970, initially (until 1982) as a joint venture between BLMC and the National Bus Company to build the Leyland National bus. Closed by Volvo 1993.
- Longbridge, Birmingham. Originally the Austin plant, and at one time the largest manufacturing plant in the world. The largest British car plant in the 1970s. Closed upon the collapse of MG Rover in 2005. Successor Nanjing has restarted limited car assembly on a much smaller scale for the MG TF.
- Lowestoft, Suffolk. Eastern Coach Works bus bodywork plant, initially 25% owned, from 1969 50% owned, from 1982 100% owned. Closed 1986.
- Park Royal, London. Park Royal Vehicles bus bodywork plant. Closed 1980.
- Scotstoun, Glasgow. Former Albion truck and bus plant. Vehicle assembly ceased 1980, but became an axle plant. Now owned by AAM.
- Solihull, West Midlands. The former Rover plant. A new car assembly line opened in 1970s but closed 1981. The original plant survives as the home of Land Rover 4x4 vehicles, who are now under Tata Motors ownership.
- Southall, London. Former AEC bus and truck plant. Closed 1979.
- Speke, Merseyside. Car plant opened by Standard-Triumph in 1960s. The first major British BLMC car assembly plant to close, in 1978.
- Adderley Park, Birmingham. Originally the main Wolseley assembly plant (until 1927), then the main Morris Commercial assembly plant, latterly for vans only. Closed in 1972, when van assembly transferred to nearby Ward End.
- Ward End (also known as Drews Lane / Common Lane / Washwood Heath), Birmingham. Originally a Wolseley assembly plant (until 1948), later a component plant, and in 1968 the Austin-Morris Division's transmission plant. In 1972 it became BLMC's main van assembly plant. It is now owned by LDV Limited and still used for van assembly.
- Watford, Hertfordshire. Former Scammell plant building specialist heavy trucks. Closed 1988.
See also
External links
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- Model-by-model history http://austin-rover.co.uk
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