Vickers plc was the remainder of

Vickers-Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

after the nationalisation of three of its four operating groups: aviation (as a 50% share since 1960 of

British Aircraft Corporation The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric, English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs, Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), the Bristol Aeroplane ...

(BAC) in 1977), shipbuilding ( Vickers Limited Shipbuilding Group in 1977) and steel. It was purchased by Rolls-Royce plc in 1999, and the Vickers company name became defunct in 2003 as Rolls renamed the company Vinters Engineering.

History

The company was created in 1977 from the rump of

following the nationalisation of its aviation, shipbuilding and steel businesses. The name was first used by the Vickers family for Vickers Limited – at first a Sheffield steel foundry and later a manufacturing conglomerate – from 1867 to 1927. During the 1980s the company acquired businesses in the automotive engineering sector (principally

Rolls-Royce Motors Rolls-Royce Motors was a British luxury car manufacturer, created in 1973 during the de-merger of the Rolls-Royce automotive business from the nationalised Rolls-Royce Limited. It produced luxury cars under the Rolls-Royce and Bentley brands. ...

), the defence sector (principally Royal Ordnance Factory Leeds) and the marine engineering sector (principally Kamewa and Ulstein). Rolls-Royce plc purchased Vickers plc for £576 million in 1999 for its marine engineering businesses. In 2002, Vickers Defence Systems was purchased by

Alvis plc Alvis PLC was a British motor vehicle manufacturer. It was created when United Scientific Holdings plc acquired the Alvis Car and Engineering Company, Alvis division of the nationalisation, nationalised vehicle manufacturer British Leyland in ...

to form the subsidiary Alvis Vickers. In 2003, Rolls-Royce renamed its Vickers subsidiaries Vinters Engineering plc. The Vickers name lived on in Alvis Vickers. In 2004, the board of the parent group Alvis approved a £309m takeover bid by the American defence company General Dynamics. Within three months

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Aerospace industry, aerospace, military technology, military and information security company, based in London. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is ...

, which already held a 29% stake, bid £355m for the company; this was seen as a defence of the home market from a foreign rival. The bid was accepted by the majority of shareholders. In September 2004, BAE announced the creation of BAE Systems Land Systems, a new company bringing together the BAE subsidiaries, RO Defence and Alvis Vickers, which saw the end of the Vickers name after 176 years. In 2005, the acquisition of United Defense led to the creation of BAE Systems Land and Armaments Group.

Businesses

Automotive engineering

In 1980, Vickers plc acquired

. This was not Vickers' first involvement with Rolls-Royce. In 1966,

Rolls-Royce Limited Rolls-Royce Limited was a British luxury car and later an aero-engine manufacturing business established in 1904 in Manchester by the partnership of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. Building on Royce's good reputation established with his Crane ( ...

(the original aero-engine and motor car company) acquired Bristol Aeroplane for its Bristol Siddeley engine business, but declared it had no interest in Bristol's 20% shareholding in BAC; Vickers Armstrong and

English Electric The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during the war, made munitions, armaments and aeroplanes. It initially specialised in industrial el ...

(EE) each having 40% of BAC's shares. Despite this declaration, Rolls-Royce had not disposed of its BAC stake when the former was declared bankrupt in 1971. The 20% share was eventually acquired from receivership by Vickers and GEC (EE's parent company). In 1990, the

Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for auto racing, automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream Automotiv ...

automotive engineering group was purchased. Vickers divested its automotive interests in 1998, selling Cosworth and Rolls-Royce Motors to Volkswagen Group. The disposal of Rolls-Royce was a complicated affair, involving

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

and legal issues surrounding the use of trademarks which were shared with Rolls-Royce plc.

Defence

In 1986, Royal Ordnance Factory Leeds was purchased and became the core of Vickers Defence Systems. These interests were primarily centred on land warfare products and brought the Challenger 1 tank into Vickers' portfolio. Vickers would later develop this into the Challenger 2, the current main battle tank of the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

and Oman. In 1999 Reumech, owner of OMC, the South African defence company was purchased and renamed as Vickers OMC. In 2004, Vickers OMC was sold to

Marine engineering

Since 1970, Vickers had been the parent of the Scottish Brown Brothers group, which produced marine steering gear and stabilisers. In 1986, it purchased Kamewa, a Swedish manufacturer of waterjets, followed in 1998 by Ulstein (Norway), a major marine propulsion and engineering company. The companies were formed up as Vickers Ulstein Marine.Rolls-Royce Marine
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References

Companies House
Retrieved 22 June 2006

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vickers Plc Defunct manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Defence companies of the United Kingdom Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Scotswood British companies disestablished in 1999 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1999