thumb|right|Ferguson portable radio cassette recorder also featuring the Thorn logo. Thorn owned Ferguson between the late 1950s and the late 1980s.

Thorn Electrical Industries Limited was a British electrical engineering company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange, and also a past constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Thorn is named after the Austrian-born businessman Sir Jules Thorn, who migrated to the UK in 1923 and established the Electric Lamp Service Company, trading in electrical appliances, in 1926. Two years later, the business was incorporated and continued to steadily grow. Following the acquisition of the Atlas Lamp Works company in 1932, the firm started producing light bulbs at a factory in Edmonton. In 1936, Thorn started the domestic distribution of radios on behalf of the Ferguson Radio Corporation, which it ultimately acquired ten years later. It established DER in 1939 to manufacture televisions. Within three years of the Second World War's conclusion, the company had 2,400 employees working across multiple factories, producing lamps, lighting fittings, radios, and televisions amongst other domestic appliances.

Further expansion of Thorn took place during the 1950s, striking deals with both the US-based Bendix Aviation Corporation and the transnational conglomerate EMI Group to produce products on their behalf, as well as the acquisition of Philco's British interests. During 1961, Ultra Electronics's consumer electronics interests were integrated with Thorn. Three years later, Thorn merged its lighting interests with those of Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) to form British Lighting Industries. In 1968, Thorn acquired Radio Rentals in exchange for £180 million, and completed a hostile takeover of the domestic appliance specialist Kenwood Manufacturing. That year, the company operated in excess of fifty factories across the UK as well as eight furth plants overseas. In 1931, Thorn opened his first shop, renting radios in Twickenham. As a result of Thorn's acquisition of the Atlas Lamp Works company in 1932, the firm began to manufacture its own light bulbs in Edmonton, north London by the end of 1933. The company grew rapidly to become one of the world's largest producers of lamps, luminaires and lighting components.

In October 1933, Jules Thorn formed Lotus Radio (1933) Limited with Mr L. M. Glancy, a director of Chorlton Metal Co. Limited, acquiring certain assets of the original Lotus Company and to manufacture radio receivers.

Jules Thorn became chairman of Ferguson Radio Corporation in 1936 and Thorn began distributing their entire domestic radio production. In 1947, Thorn formed an agreement with Sylvania Electric Products to co-operate on the development and manufacture of fluorescent lamps. The company bought Tricity Cookers in 1951.

Further expansion

In 1957, Thorn entered an agreement with Bendix Aviation Corporation in the United States to produce electrical components for guided missiles and supersonic aircraft in Britain on behalf of Bendix. The same year, they made arrangements with the transnational conglomerate EMI to produce "His Master's Voice" (HMV) and Marconiphone radio and television receivers. Additionally, Thorn reorganised all of its lighting activities under Atlas Lighting Limited. In April 1959, they acquired Philco's UK business.

In 1959, the company secured a stake in the relay operator Multi-Signals Ltd; it became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Thorn in 1964. These activates were subsequently organised under a subsidiary, the British Radio Corporation Limited. One year later, Thorn took over Glover and Main, an Edmonton-based gas appliance manufacturer. Thorn manufactured television sets in Australia and in Bradford, UK.

In June 1967, Moffat's interests in the UK were acquired. In August 1967, Thorn acquired Metal Industries, which had interests in electrical and electronic control and instrumentation, including Avo, Towler and Fawcett. In November 1967, Thorn bought out AEI's 35 percent interest in British Lighting Industries. In March 1968, they acquired Keyswitch Relays.

By 1968, the Thorn Group had over fifty major factories in the United Kingdom and eight overseas covering a wide field in the electrical and electronics industries. The same year, it also acquired Kenwood Manufacturing, a British-based domestic appliance producer, via a hostile takeover.

American company General Telephone and Electronics (GTE) built up a large interest in Thorn, with the potential of a merger rumoured. In the 1960s, GTE shared their technical knowledge of colour television tubes from their now subsidiary, Sylvania Electric Products, with Thorn.

GTE sold its shares in 1968 following the acquisition of Radio Rentals.

(microwave equipment).

Merger with EMI

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

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Thorn EMI sought out a buyer for its electronics wing, but failed to conclude any deal. On 16 August 1996, Thorn EMI shareholders voted in favour of de-merging Thorn. Thereafter, the electronics and rentals divisions were divested as Thorn plc.

Post demerger

In July 1998, it was announced that Future Rentals, a subsidiary of the Japanese investment bank Nomura Group, would acquire Thorn in exchange for £980 million ($1.63 billion). Two years later, the company was transferred buyout specialists Terra Firma Capital Partners, which set up the BrightHouse chain. In June 2007, the remainder of the company was sold to a private buyer in June 2007.

Big Brown Box was launched in Australia in 2008 by Thorn, and was later sold to Appliances Online, a subsidiary of Winning Appliances, in 2011. The site was an online retailer of AV equipment, consumer electronics, and appliances.

References

See also

  • Thorn Lighting