BTR plc

BTR plc
Company typePublic limited company
IndustryConglomerate
PredecessorThe Leyland & Birmingham Rubber Edit this on Wikidata
Founded1924
Defunct1999
FateMerged with Siebe
SuccessorInvensys
HeadquartersLondon, England
Key people
Revenue£10 billion (1995)[1]
Number of employees
~130,000 (1995)[1][2]
Subsidiaries

BTR plc was a British multinational industrial conglomerate company. It was headquartered in London, England.

The company was originally founded in 1924 as the British Goodrich Rubber Co. Ltd as a subsidiary of the American rubber specialist B.F.Goodrich Company. Ten years later, it became the British Tyre & Rubber Co. Ltd after Goodrich sold its stake in the business; it moved into synthetic rubber and plastics during the 1940s and withdrew from tyre production in 1956, adopting the name BTR Ltd around the same timeframe. Management pursued a strategy of diversification and rationalisation that lasted into the mid 1960s.

During late 1966, BTR came under the control of a new central management team, which Sir Owen Green took the lead of in the following year. Green pursued a strategy of targeted growth towards opportunities that quickly would become lucrative. New subsidiaries would be created and numerous acquisitions would be undertaken by Green and later by Alan Jackson. This approach included multiple hostile takeovers by BTR, though several such bids failed, for Pilkington, Norton Abrasives, and Hawker Siddeley.

BTR was listed on the London Stock Exchange. During the 1990s, BTR accumulated a considerable debt burden and divested many of its divisions during restructuring efforts. In 1999, BTR merged with Siebe to form BTR Siebe, later renamed Invensys. Invensys was bought by and absorbed into Schneider Electric in 2014.

  1. ^ a b Atkin, Dan (28 October 1995). "The wizard of Oz takes his final bow". The Daily Telegraph.
  2. ^ Encyclopedia.com. “BTR Plc | Encyclopedia.com,” 2013. https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/btr-plc.