British Leyland

British Leyland
IndustryAutomotive
Predecessors
Founded17 January 1968 (1968-01-17)
Founders
Defunct1986 (1986)
FateRenamed as Rover Group
SuccessorRover Group, Ashok Leyland
HeadquartersLongbridge (Austin Rover), ,
United Kingdom
Key people
ProductsMotor vehicles
Brands
Number of employees
250,000
Subsidiaries

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.

  1. ^ "Leyland Motors Limited". mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2 January 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
  2. ^ "British Leyland Motor Corporation, Ltd. – British company". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2 September 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
  3. ^ "The politics of building cars". BBC News. 7 April 2005. Archived from the original on 9 October 2007. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
  4. ^ Austin Rover Online Archived 30 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "MG Rover goes into administration". BBC News. 8 April 2005. Archived from the original on 6 April 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2022.

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