British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. 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 the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...

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

History

Early history

Tramway services

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 country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, for example in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

. From operating trams, BET moved on to manufacturing them with the purchase of Brush Electrical Engineering Company 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 The Swansea and Mumbles Railway was the venue for the world's first passenger horsecar railway service, located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Originally built under an act of Parliament, the Oystermouth Railway or Tramroad Act 1804, to m ...

* Wrexham and District Electric Tramways In Scotland * Airdrie and Coatbridge Tramways *Greenock and Port Glasgow * Rothesay and Ettrick Bay Light Railway In Northern Ireland * Cavehill and Whitewell Tramway 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 The Tilling Group was one of two Conglomerate (company), conglomerates that controlled almost all of the major bus operators in the United Kingdom between World Wars I and II and until nationalisation in 1948. Tilling, together with the other ...

(owned by the

British Transport Commission The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the s ...

and from 1963 by the Transport Holding Company). 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 term ...

and tank containers. The

(and later the Transport Holding Company) held minority interests in many of BET's UK bus subsidiaries, and in late 1967 BET sold its UK bus interests to the Transport Holding Company, 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 The North Western Road Car Company, commonly abbreviated to North Western, was a bus operator based in Aintree in Merseyside, running services in Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. Following its sale from the National Bus ...

to operate minibus services in the

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

area, and started a similar operation in Preston called Zippy. The company was headquartered in Didcot, South Oxfordshire. However, in 1988 United sold Bee Line and Zippy to Ribble Motor Services (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 (TV network ...

, 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 Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British ITV franchise holder for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 22 September 1955 and 29 July 1968. It was the first ITA franchisee to go on air, ...

with

Associated Newspapers DMG Media (stylised in lowercase) is an intermediate holding company for Associated Newspapers, Northcliffe Media, Harmsworth Printing, Harmsworth Media and other subsidiaries of Daily Mail and General Trust. It is based at 9 Derry Street in ...

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 (TV network), 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 on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend TV, ...

, 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 The Independent Television Authority (ITA) was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 ( 2 & 3 Eliz. 2. c. 55) to supervise the creation of " Independent Television" (ITV), the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. The ...

ordered Rediffusion London to enter into a joint arrangement with

ABC Weekend TV ABC Television Limited, popularly known as ABC Weekend TV, was a British broadcaster 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 of ...

, the holder of the weekend

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

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, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

Ltd, which was sold in 1985.

Printing and publishing

BET acquired the Argus Press 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 Boulton & Paul Ltd was a British general manufacturer from Norwich, England that became involved in aircraft manufacture. Jeld Wen Inc. bought Boulton & Paul (along with another joinery company John Carr) from the Rugby Group plc in 1999 to ...

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, 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 corporation, multinational company which manufactures simulators, including full flight simulators and military simulators, and provides related training and support services. It is a wholly o ...

was sold in 1988 to

Hughes Aircraft The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace company, aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of the Hughes Tool Company. The company produced the Hughes ...

. In 1991 Biffa was sold to

Severn Trent Water Severn Trent plc is a water company based in Coventry, England. It supplies 4.6 million households and business across the Midlands and Wales. It is traded on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Severn Trent, the ...

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, 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 Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange 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