The Lucas receivership article people are referring to is:
Lucas distributor goes into administration (Oct 4, 2004)
LUCAS SRE, of Birmingham, which distributes Lucas-branded electrical
components , has been placed into administration with Grant Thornton.
Paul Melville and Duncan Swift, partners of Grant Thornton, have been
appointed joint administrators.
They say the business will continue to trade while they seek a purchaser.
The company has 45 employees. "There is no intention to make anyone
redundant at this time," said Paul Melville.
As far as Lucas (the Prince of Darkness), TRW Automotive owns Lucas
Automotive. Northrop Grumman acquired TRW a few years ago. Part of the
acquisition details was the spinning off of all but 17% ownership of the TRW
automotive business as N-G was not interested in it. The remaining part of
TRW became Northrop Grumman Space Technology. Since that time, some parts
of the automotive business have been sold to other concerns. Autospecialty,
the US TRW aftermarket brake division, was sold to Universal Brake Products
along with the rights to use the names TRW, Lucas, and others on brake parts
in North America. In Europe, TRW Automotive sells parts branded as either
TRW or Lucas. Lucas electrical parts are made by Magneti Marelli Holdings.
According the M-M site, they also manufacture items under the Walbro, Weber,
Jaeger, and Solex brands (among others). Below are some excepts from the
Lucas, TRW, and M-M web sites that outline the various mergers and breakups.
In a nutshell the order is:
1987 - Lucas enters into an agreement with Magneti Marelli
1991 - Lucas enters into agreement with Eaton (brake systems)
1996 - Lucas Merges with Varity (brake systems)
1999 - LucasVerity acquired by TRW
1999- Denso (Japan) acquires 80% stake in Magneti Marelli
1999 - Delphi Automotive Systems acquires Lucas Diesel Systems
2004 - TRW Automotive becomes an independent company
Hope this helps,
Hugh Barber
Hollister, CA
'73 TR6
Check out the new British Cars Forum:
http://www.team.net/the-local/tiki-view_forum.php?forumId=8
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