Inchcape plc is a British multinational automotive distribution, retail and services company headquartered in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. An outgrowth of

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

-based Mackinnon Mackenzie Company, Inchcape has operations in 32 countries across Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa and South America. Inchcape is 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 ...

and is a constituent of the

FTSE 250 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 250 Index, also called the FTSE 250 Index, FTSE 250, or, informally, the "Footsie 250" , is a stock market index that consists of the 101st to the 350th mid-cap blue chip companies listed on the London Stock ...

History

1847–1950

In 1847, William Mackinnon and Robert Mackenzie formed the Mackinnon Mackenzie Company (MMC), a general merchanting partnership based in

. In 1856, Mackinnon formed the ''Calcutta and Burma Steam Navigation Company'' to carry post to the region: the Company appointed MMC as its agent, secured contracts to transport British troops from

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

during the

Indian Mutiny The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form ...

of 1857 and floated on the

in 1862 under the name ''British India Steam Navigation Company''. In 1874, James Lyle MacKay joined Mackinnon and Mackenzie in Calcutta and, by 1914, was the sole surviving senior partner in MMC. Largely responsible for solving India's currency problems and for the adoption of the

Gold Standard A gold standard is a backed currency, monetary system in which the standard economics, economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the ...

, he was given a

peerage A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes Life peer, non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted Imperial, royal and noble ranks, noble ranks. Peerages include: A ...

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. George was born during the reign of his pa ...

for his services to industry in 1911. He chose the title " Baron Inchcape, of Strathnaver in the County of Sutherland", after the Inchcape Rock, which lies off Strathnaver and

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Angus, Scotland, Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast, some east-northeast of ...

(his birthplace) in Scotland, a prominent landmark that he had known well from sailing on voyages with his shipmaster father. Lord Inchcape was later created The 1st Viscount Inchcape in 1924, and was further advanced in the

Peerage of the United Kingdom The Peerage of the United Kingdom is one of the five peerages in the United Kingdom. It comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Acts of Union in 1801, when it replaced the Peerage of Great B ...

as The 1st Earl of Inchcape in 1929.

1950–1990

By the 1950s, the Inchcape family had diverse interests around the world. This period brought new legislation and tax laws and, under The 3rd Earl of Inchcape, the family's many interests, including MMC, were consolidated into ''Inchcape and Company''. In 1958, ''Inchcape and Company'' became a public company and offered twenty five per cent of its equity for sale on the

. Inchcape's growth was largely due to a series of mergers and acquisitions, including the merger with

Borneo Company Limited Borneo Company Limited, formed in 1856, was one of the oldest companies based in East Malaysia (Sarawak and Sabah). History Brooke era In 1840s, James Brooke ( White Rajah of Sarawak) formed a relationship with Henry Wise, a merchant from L ...

in 1967, which almost doubled the company's size by adding Hong Kong,

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

, Canada, Singapore,

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

and

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

to the operation. In 1971, Millars in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

was purchased. In 1972,

Dodwell & Co Dodwell & Co. () or Dodwell's, was one of the leading British merchant firms, or hongs, active in China and Japan during the 19th and 20th century. It was a direct rival to Jardine, Matheson & Co. History W.R. Adamson and Company – The fore ...

mpany was acquired, adding extensive shipping, motors and business-machine trading in the Far East. Dodwell & Company gave Inchcape further interests in this region, which it maintained as quasi-independent companies, rather than forming one large entity. Dodwell & Company was founded in Shanghai in 1858, and by the 1970s had established extensive businesses in shipping, motors and business-machine trading in Hong Kong, Japan and many other Far Eastern ports and cities. Mann Egerton, acquired in 1973, laid the foundations for Inchcape's motor-distribution business. Founded at the end of the 19th century in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

by an electrical engineer and an early motoring pioneer, Mann Egerton sold cars manufactured by

De Dion-Bouton De Dion-Bouton was a French automobile manufacturer and railcar manufacturer, which operated from 1883 to 1953. The company was founded by the Marquis Jules-Albert de Dion, Georges Bouton, and Bouton's brother-in-law Charles Trépardoux. Ste ...

Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...

and Daimler at the turn of the century, initially from branches in the eastern counties of England. By the 1970s, Mann Egerton distributed

British Leyland British Leyland was a British automotive engineering and manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate formed in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It wa ...

cars, as well as an extensive range of luxury cars. Inchcape bought Joska Bourgeois's Japanese car distribution business, the International Motor Company, for £14.6 million in 1979. Reincorporated as Inchcape plc in 1981, the company acquired several petrol, textile, electronic and mineral testing and inspection companies during the 1980s and formed a specific testing business stream. This business stream kept on growing due to the acquisition of the Caleb Brett group, SEMKO and various others, such as ETL Testing Laboratories. By 1989, the motors division of Inchcape was contributing two-thirds of group turnover and 53.6 percent of group profits, the greater part contributed by

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

1990–2000

Under the chairmanship of George Turnbull, Inchcape had reinforced in the 1980s its concentration on its core businesses. The key businesses at that time were organised into three main areas: services, marketing and distribution, and resources. The service businesses consisted of buying, insurance, inspection and testing, and shipping. The marketing and distribution businesses covered business machines, consumer and industrial services, and motors. The resource-based businesses covered tea and timber. A combination of factors plunged Inchcape into its two most difficult years ever, 1994 and 1995. Difficult economic conditions in some of the company's key markets – particularly in Western Europe and Hong Kong – dampened consumer spending, while the strength of the yen made Inchcape's Japanese products, notably the Toyota motor vehicles, less attractive than those of competitors based outside Japan. In certain areas such as marketing, Inchcape had also become a more bureaucratic organisation than in the past, and had lost touch with some of the local markets it served. A new management team determined that Inchcape had to focus on its core international distribution businesses to turn things around and began making significant business divestments, including selling the Bain Hogg insurance brokerage subsidiary (formed by the merger of Inchcape's brokerage operation with Bain Clarkson, and the Hogg Group in 1994 and ranked the eleventh largest broker in the world in 1995) to the

Aon Corporation Aon plc () is a British-American professional services firm that offers a range of risk-mitigation products. Aon has over 66,000 employees across 120 countries. Founded in Chicago by Patrick Ryan, Aon was created in 1982 when the Ryan Insuran ...

in the United States for £160 million in 1996. In the same year the testing service division was part of a management buy-out financed by Charterhouse Development Capital and renamed Intertek Testing Services. In March 1998, spurred by the Asian economic crisis, Inchcape announced that it would focus exclusively on worldwide car distribution, the most successful part of the group. One of the first major sectors to go was the company's Russian soft-drink bottling business. Inchcape sold that part of their operations to

The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. It manufactures, sells and markets soft drinks including Coca-Cola, other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Its stock is lis ...

for US$87 million. The sales of bottling businesses in South America, marketing services in Asia and the Middle East, the global shipping business – Inchcape Shipping Services – and the Asia-Pacific Office Automation business were some of the wide range of divestments that quickly followed. In July 1999 the new motors-only Inchcape was officially born.

2000–present

In June 2000, Peter Johnson became chief executive officer. The economic recovery in the Far East helped restore profits, as did the sale of Inchcape's forty nine per cent stake in Toyota GB to

in 2000. In 2006, André Lacroix took over as CEO, and in 2007, Inchcape acquired European Motor Holdings, a leading European motor retailer. Then Stefan Bomhard took over as CEO in January 2015. 2022ToyotaBorneoMotorsUbi

In December 2022, Inchcape announced that its £1.3 billion GBP acquisition of

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

’s largest independent automotive distributor, Derco, had been approved by Chilean authorities. The company announced the disposal of its UK dealerships to Group 1 Automotive in April 2024.

Operations

As of 2021, Inchcape operates in these countries: * Europe ** United Kingdom ** Belgium ** Luxembourg ** Poland ** Lithuania ** Latvia ** Estonia ** Finland ** Romania ** Bulgaria ** North Macedonia ** Greece ** Russia * Americas & Africa ** Barbados ** Bolivia ** El Salvador ** Costa Rica ** Panama ** Colombia ** Ecuador ** Peru ** Chile ** Argentina ** Uruguay ** Djibouti ** Ethiopia ** Kenya * Asia-Pacific ** Hong Kong ** Thailand ** Brunei ** Macau ** Singapore ** Indonesia ** Guam ** Saipan ** Australia ** Philippines

References

;Bibliography *

External links

*
Inchcape Fleet SolutionsInchcape Retail UKYahoo profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Inchcape Plc Wholesalers of the United Kingdom Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies in the FTSE 250 Index Auto dealerships of the United Kingdom Business services companies established in 1847 Retail companies established in 1847 British brands Companies based in the City of Westminster 1847 establishments in British India Indian companies established in 1847