British Leyland

British Leyland

Industry	Automotive
Predecessors	British Motor Holdings Leyland Motors
Founded	17 January 1968; 56 years ago (1968-01-17)
Founders	George Harriman Donald G. Stokes
Defunct	1986; 38 years ago (1986)
Fate	Renamed as Rover Group
Successor	Rover Group, Ashok Leyland
Headquarters	Longbridge (Austin Rover), Birmingham Cowley, Oxfordshire , United Kingdom
Key people	John Barber George Turnbull Sir Michael Edwardes Harold Musgrove Graham Day
Products	Motor vehicles
Brands	Austin Land Rover Leyland MG Riley Wolseley Vanden Plas Princess Jaguar Daimler Mini Innocenti Morris Rover Triumph Albion AEC Guy Scammell
Number of employees	250,000
Subsidiaries	Jaguar Cars (until 1984) Unipart (1974–1987) Austin Rover (from 1982) Leyland Bus (until 1987) Leyland Trucks (until 1987) Land Rover (from 1978) Coventry Climax (until 1982) Prestcold (until 1981) Aveling-Barford (until 1988) Innocenti (1972–1976) Leyland Motor Corporation of Australia (until 1983)

British Leyland was a British automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partly nationalised in 1975, when the UK government created a holding company called British Leyland, later renamed BL in 1978.^[1][2] It incorporated much of the British-owned motor vehicle industry, which in 1968 had a 40% share of the UK car market,^[3] with its history going back to 1895. Despite containing profitable marques such as Jaguar, Rover, and Land Rover, as well as the best-selling Mini, BLMC had a troubled history,^[4] leading to its eventual collapse in 1975 and subsequent part-nationalisation.

After much restructuring and divestment of subsidiary companies, BL was renamed the Rover Group in 1986, becoming a subsidiary of British Aerospace from 1988 to 1994, then was subsequently bought by BMW. The final surviving incarnation of the company as the MG Rover Group went into administration in 2005,^[5] bringing mass car production by British-owned manufacturers to an end. MG and the Austin, Morris and Wolseley marques became part of China's SAIC, with whom MG Rover attempted to merge prior to administration. As of 2024, Mini, Jaguar Land Rover, Leyland Trucks, and Unipart are the most prominent former parts of British Leyland that still exist, with SAIC still operating its UK base out of the former Longbridge site.