Rank Organisation

The Rank Organisation (founded as the J. Arthur Rank Organisation) was a British entertainment conglomerate founded in 1937 by industrialist J. Arthur Rank. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribution, and exhibition facilities, as well as manufacturing projection equipment and chairs. It diversified into the manufacture of radios, TVs, and photocopiers (as one of the owners of Rank Xerox). The company name lasted until February 1996, when the name and some of the remaining assets were absorbed into the newly structured Rank Group plc. The company itself became a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox and was renamed XRO Limited in 1997.