British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial

conglomerate Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** ...

. It was once 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 a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest marke ...

but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Rentokil Initial.

History

Early history

Tramway services

Installing overhead electrification for trams, Sedgley

The company was founded in 1895 as British Electric Traction Company Ltd, with Sir Charles Rivers Wilson as chairman and Emile Garcke as managing director. It was involved in the electrification of tramways in British towns and cities, and also in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

, for example in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

. From operating trams, BET moved on to manufacturing them with the purchase of

Brush Electrical Engineering Company Brush Traction is a manufacturer and maintainer of Locomotive, railway locomotives in Loughborough, England. It is a subsidiary of Wabtec. History Hughes's Locomotive & Tramway Engine Works Henry Hughes had been operating at the Falcon Wo ...

in 1901. The BET became the largest of the private owners of tramways in the British Isles. During its history, it gained control in England of the Metropolitan Electric and South Metropolitan systems in London, as well as systems in Barnsley, Barrow-in-Furness, Birmingham, Birmingham and Midland, Brighton and Shoreham, Cambridge, Devonport and District, Dewsbury Ossett and Soothill Nether, Dudley and Stourbridge, Gateshead, Gravesend, Great Yarmouth, Hartlepool, Jarrow, Kidderminster and Stourport, Leamington and Warwick, Mexborough and Swinton, Middleton, Oldham Ashton and Hyde, Peterborough, Poole, the Potteries, Rossendale Valley, Sheerness, South Staffordshire, Southport, South Shields, Taunton, Tynemouth, Weston-Super-Mare, Wolverhampton District, Worcester, and Yorkshire (Woollen District). In Wales * Merthyr Tydfil Electric Tramways *Swansea * Swansea and Mumbles Railway *

Wrexham and District Electric Tramways Wrexham and District Electric Tramways was a company that operated an electric tramway service in Wrexham, Wales between 1903 and 1914 when it was renamed Wrexham and District Transport Company Limited. Trams continued to operate until 1927. Hi ...

In Scotland *

Airdrie and Coatbridge Tramways Airdrie and Coatbridge Tramways operated a tramway service in Airdrie and Coatbridge between 1904 and 1922 when it was taken over by Glasgow Corporation Tramways. History British Electric Traction established the Airdrie and Coatbridge Tramwa ...

*Greenock and Port Glasgow * Rothesay and Ettrick Bay Light Railway In Northern Ireland *

Cavehill and Whitewell Tramway The Cavehill and Whitewell Tramway operated steam powered, then horse drawn and finally electric tramway services between Cavehill and Whitewell in Belfast, Ireland between 1882 and 1911. It was subsumed into Belfast Corporation Tramways. Hi ...

The last BET tram ran on 4 August 1951, when the Gateshead and District Tramways Company replaced its trams with buses.

Motor bus services

In 1905 a subsidiary was formed to operate motor buses, which became increasingly important to the group as many municipalities were compulsorily acquiring company-owned tram networks in their areas.

Post war

Nationalisation of BET's electricity generation and distribution activities took place in 1947 leaving BET with a portfolio of bus companies, a number of miscellaneous investments, and a cash pile. The company embarked on a programme of acquisitions, with particular emphases on transport, leisure and entertainment, printing and publishing, construction and plant hire, textile maintenance and waste management.

Products and operations

Transport

From 1949 until 1967 BET continued to be one of the two major bus groups in the UK, alongside the state-owned Tilling Group (owned by the British Transport Commission and from 1963 by the

Transport Holding Company The Transport Holding Company (THC) was a British Government-owned company created by the Transport Act 1962 to administer a range of state-owned transport, travel and engineering companies that were previously managed by the British Transport C ...

). In 1956 BET acquired a 20% interest in United Transport Company, the rump of the old Red & White company, increased to 100% in 1971. United Transport continued with its freight road haulage business (Bulwark Transport), and also moved into shipping, particularly

containers A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The ter ...

and tank containers. The British Transport Commission (and later the

) held minority interests in many of BET's UK bus subsidiaries, and in late 1967 BET sold its UK bus interests to the

, to become part of the National Bus Company. United Transport had passenger transport and freight interests in southern Africa. BET owned and operated Jamaica Omnibus Service, a 600-bus operation in Kingston, Jamaica, until it was nationalised by the Jamaican Government in 1974. In January 1987 BET briefly reentered the UK bus market, when United Transport formed the Bee Line Buzz Company to operate minibus services in the

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

area, and started a similar operation in

Preston Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to: Places England *Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement **The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement **County Boro ...

called Zippy. The company was headquartered in Didcot, South Oxfordshire. However, in 1988 United sold Bee Line and Zippy to

Ribble Motor Services Ribble Motor Services was a large regional bus operator in the North West England based in Preston. History Ribble Motor Services commenced operating in 1919, and grew to be the largest operator in the region, with a territory stretching f ...

(coincidentally once owned by BET).

Leisure and entertainment

In 1947 BET acquired a substantial minority interest in Broadcast Relay Service Ltd, trading as

Rediffusion Rediffusion was a business that distributed radio and TV signals through wired relay networks. The business gave rise to a number of other companies, including Associated-Rediffusion, later known as Rediffusion London, the first ITV ( commer ...

, which distributed radio and television signals though wired relay networks. BET acquired a controlling interest in 1967, and the remaining 36% in 1983. When ITV commercial television started in the UK in 1955, Rediffusion formed Associated-Rediffusion with Associated Newspapers with BET's financial backing, and won the London weekday broadcast franchise. In the beginning, Associated Rediffusion lost money. By the end of 1956 Associated Newspapers sold 80% of its stake back to BET and Rediffusion at a severe loss. Around that same time, Associated Rediffusion struck a very favourable deal with

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was its ...

, the franchise holder for weekday broadcasts in the North of England. Granada was also losing money, and lacked the financial resources of BET; the deal guaranteed Granada a certain level of financial security, at the cost of Associated-Rediffusion receiving the vast majority of future profits from their arrangement. By 1964, when Associated Rediffusion changed its name to Rediffusion London, its efforts had left it sitting on a mountain of cash. But in 1967 the Independent Television Authority ordered Rediffusion London to enter into a joint arrangement with

ABC Weekend TV ABC Weekend TV was the popular name of the British broadcaster ABC Television Limited, which provided the weekend service in the Midlands and Northern England regions of the Independent Television (ITV) network from 1956 to 1968. It was one ...

, the holder of the weekend

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the In ...

and North of England franchises, to form

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

. As a result of this re-allocation of interests, ABC took a controlling 51% interest in Thames Television, although the profits were split 50/50 between ABC and Rediffusion. Thames Television was given the new weekday London franchise. BET sold its interest in Thames Television in 1985. Between 1955 and 1968 BET made other acquisitions in the leisure sector, including a controlling interest in

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

Ltd, which was sold in 1985.

Printing and publishing

BET acquired the

Argus Press Argus Press was a British publishing company. It was acquired by British Electric Traction (BET) in 1966, and became the publishing arm of that company. It was the subject of one of the most hotly contested management buyouts of the 1980s when a m ...

group in 1966.

Construction and plant hire

BET acquired Eddison Plant Ltd in 1949, and expanded into construction after the sale of its bus interests in 1968. It acquired Boulton & Paul Ltd and Grayston Ltd. Murphy Bros. Limited with interests in civil engineering, opencast coal mining, building materials production and plant hire was acquired in 1968. BET acquired Shifnal, Shropshire based Wrekin Construction Company Limited in 1972 and divested the business to its founder Tom Frain in 1983 for £3 million. In 1985 BET acquired the crane company G W Sparrow & Sons plc, and combined its craneage interests into a new subsidiary, Grayston White and Sparrow.

Laundry and linen rental

BET entered the laundry business in 1934, and in 1935 acquired an interest in Advance Linen Services, which became a subsidiary in 1955. In 1950 BET took a 10% interest in Initial. The stake was gradually increased until 1985, when BET took over Initial.

Waste management

In 1971 BET acquired

Biffa Biffa plc is a waste management company headquartered in High Wycombe, England. It provides collection, landfill, recycling and special waste services to local authorities and industrial and commercial clients in the United Kingdom. , it was t ...

, and also acquired Re-Chem International, which specialised in toxic industrial waste processing.

Divestment and sale

In the 1980s conglomerates such as BET fell out of favour, and BET extracted itself from some business sectors. Its interests in

were sold in 1985, and the rest of Rediffusion soon followed. BET sold its 75 per cent shareholding in Humphries Holdings PLC to Lee International PLC for £2.5 million in 1985.

Rediffusion Simulation Thales Training & Simulation Ltd. is a multinational company which manufactures simulators, including full flight simulators and military simulators, and provides related training and support services. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Th ...

was sold in 1988 to

Hughes Aircraft The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of Hughes Tool Company. The company was known for producing, among other pro ...

. In 1991 Biffa was sold to Severn Trent Water plc. BET also sold its construction interests. BET retained the profitable laundry and linen rental businesses, and also the shipping businesses of United Transport. In 1996 BET was acquired by the much smaller

Rentokil Rentokil Initial is a British business services group based in Crawley, England. It was founded in 1925 as a pest-control business but subsequently expanded and diversified, in part through organic growth under the leadership of Sir Clive Thom ...

, after a hostile take-over bid. The merged company was named Rentokil Initial.Rentokil Initial: History
/ref>

References

External links

*

{{Defunct British Bus Companies Manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Publishing companies of the United Kingdom Transport operators of the United Kingdom Conglomerate companies of the United Kingdom Defunct electric power companies of the United Kingdom Transport companies established in 1895 Transport companies disestablished in 1996 1895 establishments in England Tram transport in the United Kingdom 1996 disestablishments in England British companies established in 1895 1996 mergers and acquisitions British companies disestablished in 1996