Rolls-Royce Limited

This article is about the business between 1904 and 1987. For the present-day aero-engine business, see Rolls-Royce Holdings. For the present-day automobile business, see Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. For other uses, see Rolls-Royce.

Rolls-Royce Limited
Formerly
  • Rolls-Royce Limited (1906–71)
  • Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited (1971–77)
  • Rolls-Royce Limited (1977–87)
  • Rolls-Royce plc (1987)
Company type
IndustryAutomotive
Manufacturing
PredecessorPartnership of Rolls and Royce (1904–1906)
Founded
  • Manchester, United Kingdom
  • 1906 (as a private company)
  • 1971 (as a state-owned company)
Founders
DefunctApril 1987
Fate
Successors
Headquarters
Derby
,
United Kingdom
Key people
Products
  • Automobiles
  • Civil and military aero-engines
  • Marine propulsion systems
  • Power generation equipment
Subsidiaries

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 cranes, they quickly developed a reputation for superior engineering by manufacturing the "best car in the world"[according to whom?] The business was incorporated as "Rolls-Royce Limited" in 1906, and a new factory in Derby was opened in 1908. The First World War brought the company into manufacturing aero-engines. Joint development of jet engines began in 1940, and they entered production in 1944.[1] Rolls-Royce has since built an enduring reputation for the development and manufacturing of engines for military and commercial aircraft.

In the late 1960s, Rolls-Royce was adversely affected by the mismanaged development of its advanced RB211 jet engine and consequent cost over-runs, though it ultimately proved a great success. In 1971, the owners were obliged to liquidate their business. The useful portions were bought by a new government-owned company named "Rolls-Royce (1971) Limited", which continued the core business but sold the holdings in British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) almost immediately and transferred ownership of the profitable but now financially insignificant car division to Rolls-Royce Motors Holdings Limited, which it sold to Vickers in 1980. Rolls-Royce obtained consent to drop the '1971' distinction from its company name in 1977, at which point it became known once again as "Rolls-Royce Limited".

The Rolls-Royce business remained nationalised until 1987 when, after having renamed the company to "Rolls-Royce plc", the British government sold it to the public in a share offering. Rolls-Royce plc still owns and operates Rolls-Royce's principal business, although, since 2003, it is technically a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce Holdings plc, a listed holding company.

  1. ^ "Rolls-Royce, Our History". Archived from the original on 19 July 2020. Retrieved 19 April 2023.