Thorn Electrical Industries Limited was a British electrical engineering company. It was listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

, but merged with

EMI Group EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 2012 ...

to form

Thorn EMI Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to: Botany * Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants * ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species Comics and literature * Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Comi ...

in 1979. It was de-merged in 1996 and became a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, but was acquired by the Japanese

Nomura Group is a Japanese financial holding company and a principal member of the Nomura Group. It, along with its broker-dealer, banking and other financial services subsidiaries, provides investment, financing and related services to individual, instituti ...

only two years later, it is now owned by

Terra Firma Capital Partners Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd. (TFCP) is a UK-based private equity firm. Financier Guy Hands founded the firm in 2002 through the spin-off of Nomura Principal Finance Group. The firm, which traces its roots to the formation of its predecess ...

History

Sir Jules Thorn founded the company with his business partner Alfred Deutsch in March 1928 as The Electric Lamp Service Company Ltd. Thorn had worked in England as a travelling salesman for company Olso, an Austrian manufacturer of

gas mantle A Coleman white gas lantern mantle glowing at full brightness An incandescent gas mantle, gas mantle or Welsbach mantle is a device for generating incandescent bright white light when heated by a flame. The name refers to its original heat sou ...

s. When Olso went bankrupt, Thorn decided to stay in England. Deutsch, an Austrian engineer, visited Thorn in 1928 and was persuaded to stay to help organize the company's production process. Thorn acquired the Atlas Lamp Works company in 1932 and began making

light bulbs An electric light, lamp, or light bulb is an electrical component that produces light. It is the most common form of artificial lighting. Lamps usually have a base made of ceramic, metal, glass, or plastic, which secures the lamp in the soc ...

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nor ...

. The company grew rapidly to become

Thorn Lighting Thorn Lighting Ltd, a subsidiary of the Zumtobel Group, is a global supplier of both outdoor and indoor luminaires and integrated controls. Thorn was founded when Sir Jules Thorn started The Electric Lamp Service Company Ltd, in 1928, dealing ...

, one of the world's largest producers of lamps,

luminaire A light fixture (US English), light fitting (UK English), or luminaire is an electrical device containing an Lamp (electrical component), electric lamp that provides Lighting, illumination. All light fixtures have a fixture body and one or more ...

s and lighting components. The name changed again to Thorn Electrical Industries in November 1936. The company later began to diversify by buying the electronics firm Ferguson Radio Corporation in the late 1950s and

Ultra Electronics Ultra Electronics Holdings is a British defence and security company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index until it was acquired by Cobham, which is itself owned by Advent International. Histo ...

in 1961. Thorn took over Glover and Main, a local Edmonton company in 1965, a gas-appliance manufacturer. Thorn manufactured television sets in Australia. The company also owned Thorn Benham which made electrical catering equipment. It had a joint venture in the 70's with General Telephone and Electronics of America (GTE) to try and break into the UK telephopne equipment market. GT&E was later replaced by Ericcson of Sweden who wanted a foothold in the UK equipment market and who eventually bough out Thorn's interest. The Thorn Group's notable brands over the years included

Radio Rentals Radio Rentals was formed in 1930Radio Rentals Staff Handbook in Brighton, Sussex, UK to rent out radio sets by Percy Perring-Thoms with a turnover in the first year of £780 (). It later offered televisions and ultimately video recorders for re ...

, DER (both TV rental), Rumbelows (electrical goods), Tricity (cookers and fridges), Kenwood (food mixers), Thorn Kidde (fire protection), TMD (microwave equipment) and Mazda (light bulbs).

Merger with EMI

Thorn merged with the EMI Group in October 1979, to form

. On 16 August 1996, Thorn EMI shareholders voted in favour of de-merging Thorn. The electronics and rentals divisions were divested as Thorn plc.

Post demerger

Future Rentals, a subsidiary of the

, acquired Thorn in 1998. It subsequently passed to

which set up the BrightHouse chain. The remainder of the company was sold to a private buyer in June 2007.Thorn at Terra Firma
Big Brown Box was launched in Australia in 2008 by Thorn, and was later sold to

Appliances Online Appliances Online is an online retailer for white goods and home appliances that is based in Sydney, Australia. The company is a subsidiary of the family-run Winning Group, which includes Winning Appliances, Winning Services and Home Clearanc ...

, a subsidiary of

Winning Appliances Winning Appliances is a fourth-generation Australian family-owned kitchen and laundry specialist. The company operates fifteen showrooms across Australia, seven of which are in New South Wales, two in Queensland, two in Victoria, three in Weste ...

, in 2011. The site was an online retailer of AV equipment, consumer electronics, and appliances.

History

Merger with EMI

Post demerger

References

See also