R&D<Rolls-Royce was the world's 16th largest defence contractor in 2018 when measured by defence revenues.[6]
Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange, where it is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. As of close of London trading on 28 August 2019, the company had a market capitalisation of £4.656bn, the 85th-largest of any company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange.[7]
The company's registered office is at Kings Place, near Kings Cross in London.[8]
Rolls-Royce grew from the engineering business of Henry Royce which was established in 1884 and ten years later began to manufacture dynamos and electric cranes. Charles Rolls established a separate business with Royce in 1904 because Royce had developed a range of cars which Rolls wanted to sell. A corporate owner was incorporated in 1906 with the name Rolls-Royce Limited.[9]
In 1971 the same company, Rolls-Royce Limited, entered voluntary liquidation because it was unable to meet its financial obligations though it remains in existence today, still in liquidation, with a file number for its name. Its business and assets were bought by the government using a company created for the purpose named Rolls-Royce (1971) limited. Rolls-Royce Motors was separated out in 1973. The (1971) company remains in existence today and carries on Rolls-Royce business under the name Rolls-Royce plc.[10]
Rolls-Royce plc returned to the stock market in 1987 under the government of Margaret Thatcher. In 2003 ownership of Rolls-Royce plc was passed to Rolls-Royce Group plc incorporated 21 March 2003 which issued its own new shares for payment to the previous shareholders. In the same way, Rolls-Royce Group plc passed ownership on 23 May 2011 to Rolls-Royce Holdings plc, a wholly new company incorporated 10 February 2011.[11] Rolls-Royce plc remains the principal trading company. Rolls-Royce Holdings plc, like its immediate predecessor, is merely a holding company.[11][nb 1]
Growth
The 1980s saw the introduction of a policy to offer an engine fitment on a much wider range of civil aircraft types, with the company's engines now powering 17 different airliners (and their variants) compared to General Electric's 14 and Pratt & Whitney's 10.[12]
The civil engines business represents the company's main area of growth: between 2010 and 2018, Rolls-Royce invested £11 billion in facilities and R&D and launched six new civil engines including the Trent XWB and the Pearl 15 for the business aviation market. It secured orders for 2,700 engines for wide-body aircraft and business jets. It expects to produce over 600 wide-body engines a year and should power over half of the worldwide-body fleet within a few years, up from 22% a decade before.[13]
Restructuring
In February 2017 Rolls-Royce posted its largest ever pre-tax loss of £4.6 billion; This included a £4.4 billion writedown on financial hedges that the company uses to protect itself against currency fluctuations, and a £671 million penalty to settle bribery and corruption charges with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the US Department of Justice, and Brazilian authorities.[14]
On 14 June 2018 the company announced a restructuring of the business to create three simpler decentralised units (civil aerospace, defence and power systems), to rationalise back office functions and to remove middle management functions. The cost savings should amount to £400 million per year by 2020, with an up-front restructuring cost of £500 million. Some 4,600 people[15] are likely to leave the business out of 55,000 employed worldwide, 3,000 job losses from the UK and the rest from elsewhere in the world[16] (15,700 of the employees work in Derby and 10,300 work elsewhere in the United Kingdom).[17][18]
In August 2018 Rolls-Royce announced it was taking a charge of £554 million to cover faults with some Trent 1000 engines on Boeing 787 Dreamliners; Rather than going thousands of hours between inspections, the faults with turbine blades mean the engines currently require inspection every 300 hours of flight. In the same announcement Rolls-Royce said it would spend £450m fixin
In 1971 the same company, Rolls-Royce Limited, entered voluntary liquidation because it was unable to meet its financial obligations though it remains in existence today, still in liquidation, with a file number for its name. Its business and assets were bought by the government using a company created for the purpose named Rolls-Royce (1971) limited. Rolls-Royce Motors was separated out in 1973. The (1971) company remains in existence today and carries on Rolls-Royce business under the name Rolls-Royce plc.[10]
Rolls-Royce plc returned to the stock market in 1987 under the government of Margaret Thatcher. In 2003 ownership of Rolls-Royce plc was passed to Rolls-Royce Group plc incorporated 21 March 2003 which issued its own new shares for payment to the previous shareholders. In the same way, Rolls-Royce Group plc passed ownership on 23 May 2011 to Rolls-Royce Holdings plc, a wholly new company incorporated 10 February 2011.[11] Rolls-Royce plc remains the principal trading company. Rolls-Royce Holdings plc, like its immediate predecessor, is merely a holding company.[11][nb 1]
The 1980s saw the introduction of a policy to offer an engine fitment on a much wider range of civil aircraft types, with the company's engines now powering 17 different airliners (and their variants) compared to General Electric's 14 and Pratt & Whitney's 10.[12]
The civil engines business represents the company's main area of growth: between 2010 and 2018, Rolls-Royce invested £11 billion in facilities and R&D and launched six new civil engines including the R&D and launched six new civil engines including the Trent XWB and the Pearl 15 for the business aviation market. It secured orders for 2,700 engines for wide-body aircraft and business jets. It expects to produce over 600 wide-body engines a year and should power over half of the worldwide-body fleet within a few years, up from 22% a decade before.[13]
In February 2017 Rolls-Royce posted its largest ever pre-tax loss of £4.6 billion; This included a £4.4 billion writedown on financial hedges that the company uses to protect itself against currency fluctuations, and a £671 million penalty to settle bribery and corruption charges with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the US Department of Justice, and Brazilian authorities.[14]
On 14 June 2018 the company announced a restructuring of the business to create three simpler decentralised units (civil aerospace, decentralised units (civil aerospace, defence and power systems), to rationalise back office functions and to remove middle management functions. The cost savings should amount to £400 million per year by 2020, with an up-front restructuring cost of £500 million. Some 4,600 people[15] are likely to leave the business out of 55,000 employed worldwide, 3,000 job losses from the UK and the rest from elsewhere in the world[16] (15,700 of the employees work in Derby and 10,300 work elsewhere in the United Kingdom).[17][18]
In August 2018 Rolls-Royce announced it was taking a charge of £554 million to cover faults with some Trent 1000 engines on Boeing 787 Dreamliners; Rather than going thousands of hours between inspections, the faults with turbine blades mean the engines currently require inspection every 300 hours of flight. In the same announcement Rolls-Royce said it would spend £450m fixing faults on the Trent 1000 in 2018, £450m in 2019 and £350m in 2020, with the work complete by 2022.[19]
In May 2020, the company announced that they will be cutting one fifth of their jobs (around 9,000) worldwide as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[20][21] Around 3,000 job losses were expected in the UK, half of them in Derby.[22]
Rolls-Royce's £90 million test bed 80 will be the largest of its kind, sized for engines of up to 140,000 lbf (620 kN) of thrust.
Design started in 2017, construction began in 2018 and it should be commissioned by mid-2020.
The 80,730 sq ft (7,500 m2) facility is 426.5 ft (130.0 m) long, has a 95 ft (29 m) tall intake tower and a 123 ft (37 m) tall exhaust stack.
Built from 3,450 tons of steel and 27,000 m3 (950,000 cu ft) of concrete, it has a 49 by 49 ft (15 by 15 m) tall and wide enclosed space and it can handle a 66 tons engine including its carrier.[23]
X-ray imaging allows to visualize the position of seals and clearances in real time while an engine is running.
While it was retrofitted on Rolls' test bed 57, test bed 80 is the first to be purpose-designed for industrial radiography.
To protect from external X-ray like 30 cm (11.8 in.) of lead, double walls are up to 8.9 ft. (2.7 m) thick (a 5.6-ft. interior wall and 3.3-ft. exterior wall) and provide acoustic insulation.
Canadian prime contractor X-ray imaging allows to visualize the position of seals and clearances in real time while an engine is running.
While it was retrofitted on Rolls' test bed 57, test bed 80 is the first to be purpose-designed for industrial radiography.
To protect from external X-ray like 30 cm (11.8 in.) of lead, double walls are up to 8.9 ft. (2.7 m) thick (a 5.6-ft. interior wall and 3.3-ft. exterior wall) and provide acoustic insulation.
Canadian prime contractor MDS Aero Support is responsible for design and management, test systems supply, engine adapters, support systems and data acquisition and control while construction is done by Buckingham Group Contracting.[23]
In 1988, Rolls-Royce acquired Northern Engineering Industries (NEI), a group of heavy engineering companies mainly associated with electrical generation and power management, based in the North East of England. The group included Clarke Chapman (cranes), Reyrolle (now part of Siemens) and Parsons (now part of Siemens steam turbines). The company was renamed Rolls-Royce Industrial Power Group. It was sold off piecemeal over the next decade as the company re-focused on its core aero-engine operations following the recession of the early 1990s.[24]
- Allison Engine Company/Rolls-Royce Corporation
On 21 November 1994, Rolls-Royce announced its intention to acquire the Allison Engine Company, an American manufacturer of gas turbines and components for aviation, industrial and marine engines.On 21 November 1994, Rolls-Royce announced its intention to acquire the Allison Engine Company, an American manufacturer of gas turbines and components for aviation, industrial and marine engines.[25] The two companies had a technical association dating back to the Second World War. Rolls-Royce had previously tried to buy the company when General Motors sold it in 1993, but GM opted for a management buyout instead for $370 million. Owing to Allison's involvement in classified and export restricted technology, the 1994 acquisition was subject to investigation to determine the national security implications.[26] On 27 March 1995, the US Department of Defense announced that the "deal between Allison Engine Co. and Rolls-Royce does not endanger national security."[27] Rolls-Royce was, however, obliged to set up a proxy board to manage Allison and had also to set up a separate company, Allison Advanced Development Company, Inc., to manage classified programmes "that involve leading-edge technologies" such as the Joint Strike Fighter program.[27] In 2000, this restriction was replaced by a more flexible Special Security Arrangement.[28] In 2001, Rolls-Royce and its LiftSystem was among the group that won the JSF contract for the F-35.[29]
The Allison acquisition, at $525 million (equivalent to £
The Allison acquisition, at $525 million (equivalent to £328 million),[25] brought four new engine types into the Rolls-Royce civil engine portfolio on seven platforms and several light aircraft applications. Allison is now known as Rolls-Royce Corporation, part of Rolls-Royce North America.[30]
In 1999 Rolls-Royce acquired Vickers plc for its marine businesses.[31] The portion retained is now Vinters Engineering Limited. Rolls-Royce sold Vickers Defence Systems (the other major Vickers area of business) to Alvis plc in 2002, which then became Alvis Vickers.[32]
- BMW joint venture / Rolls-
Rolls-Royce has established a leading position in the corporate and regional airline sector through the development of the Tay engine, the Allison acquisition and the consolidation of the BMW Rolls-Royce joint venture. In 1999, BMW Rolls-Royce was renamed Rolls-Royce Deutschland and became a 100% owned subsidiary of Rolls-Royce plc.[33]
- SAIC joint venture / Optimized Systems and SolutionsOptimized Systems and Solutions Limited (formerly known as Data Systems & Solutions) was founded in 1999 as a joint venture between Rolls-Royce plc and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). In early 2006, SAIC exited the joint venture agreement, making Rolls-Royce plc the sole owner.[34]
Trent
