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

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

, but merged with EMI Group to form

Thorn EMI Thorn EMI was a major British company involved in consumer electronics, music, defence and retail. Created when Thorn Electrical Industries merged with EMI in October 1979, it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituen ...

in 1979. It was de-merged in 1996 and became a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...

, but was acquired by the Japanese

Nomura Group is a financial holding company and a principal member of the Nomura Group, which is Japan's largest investment bank and brokerage group. It, along with its broker-dealer, banking and other financial services subsidiaries, provides investment, fin ...

only two years later. It is now owned by

Terra Firma Capital Partners Terra Firma Capital Partners Limited is a British 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 predecessor i ...

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 bright white light when heated by a flame. The name refers to its original heat source in gas li ...

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 in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

north London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames and the City of London. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshi ...

. The company grew rapidly to become Thorn Lighting, one of the world's largest producers of lamps,

luminaire A light fixture (US English), light fitting (UK English), or luminaire is an electrical lighting device containing one or more light sources, such as lamps, and all the accessory components required for its operation to provide illumination to ...

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. The ...

in 1961. Thorn took over Glover and Main, a local Edmonton company in 1965, a gas-appliance manufacturer. Thorn manufactured television sets in Australia and in Bradford, UK. 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 telephone equipment market. GT&E was later replaced by Ericcson of Sweden who wanted a foothold in the UK equipment market and who eventually bought out Thorn's interest. The Thorn Group's notable brands over the years included Radio Rentals, 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, a subsidiary of

Winning Appliances Winning Appliances is an Australian-family-owned kitchen and laundry appliance specialist. The company operates showrooms across Australia and sells various kitchen and laundry appliances. Its national headquarters are in Redfern, New South W ...

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

History

Merger with EMI

Post demerger

References

See also