Thorn Lighting Ltd.

Company type	Private
Industry	Lighting
Founded	29 March 1928[1]
Founder	Sir Jules Thorn
Headquarters	London , England
Area served	Worldwide
Products	Professional luminaires and controls
Revenue	€109 million (2020)[2]
Number of employees	more than 1,000 (2015)[2]
Parent	Zumtobel Group
Website	www.thornlighting.com

Thorn Lighting Ltd, a subsidiary of theZumtobel Group, is a global supplier of both outdoor and indoorluminaires and integrated controls.

Thorn was founded whenSir Jules Thorn started The Electric Lamp Service Company Ltd, in 1928, dealing inincandescent filament lamps. In 1936, renamedThorn Electrical Industries, the company was floated on theLondon Stock Exchange. Continuous postWorld War II expansion followed and the organisation seized a variety of lighting, engineering and consumer electronics businesses, merging withEMI in 1979 to createThorn EMI, which itself demerged in the year 1996.^[3]

In 1994, following aleveraged management buy-out, Thorn Lighting Ltd floated on the London Stock Exchange as TLG plc (the Thorn Lighting Group) until it was acquired by Wassall plc four years later. In 2000, Wassall plc was purchased in order to merge TLG with the luminaire business of the Zumtobel Group, an acquisition financed with the assistance ofprivate equity firmKKR who subsequently reduced its position. Thorn is now fully owned by the Zumtobel Group.

The Thorn brand started life as the Electric Lamp Service Company Limited, established byJules Thorn on 29 March 1928, importing incandescent filament lamps and radio valves from the continent. Faced with increased import duties,^[4] introduced to aid British manufacturing, Jules Thorn bought his first lighting factory, the Atlas Lamp Works Ltd inEdmonton, north London in 1932. In 1936 the company went public as Thorn Electrical Industries.

The lamp businesses prospered until 1939 when production was geared to military needs. When war broke out a second lamp site, run by the Vale Royal Electric Lamp Company, was bought in nearbyTottenham in case Edmonton was bombed.

WhenWorld War II ended, Jules Thorn continued expansion through investing in new plants, partnerships and acquisitions, including the opening of an incandescent lamp operation inMerthyr Tydfil,^[5][6] South Wales in 1947; a technology transfer withSylvania Electric Products to mass-produce tubularfluorescent lamps inEnfield, north London and taking over 51% ofEkco-Ensign Electric (Ekco) in 1950, which added a further incandescent lamp factory – inPreston,^[7] Lancashire.

In 1951, Thorn took over Smart & Brown (Engineers) Ltd's luminaire factory atSpennymoor,^[8] near Durham. In the mid-1950s specialist incandescent lamp factories were opened inBuckie,^[9][10] Scotland and inWimbledon, London (the Omega Electric Lamp Works Ltd).^[11]

Between 1952 and 1964 Thorn established additional overseas connections, including a controlling interest in an Italian lamp manufacturer (SIVI Illuminazione SpA) and plants in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, followed by agencies in the Middle East and Hong Kong, the latter withJardine Pacific.

In September 1959 a new London-based headquarters was opened. Thorn House, designed bySir Basil Spence, was at the time England's tallest office block.^{[citation needed]}

In 1964, driven by the need to compete more effectively in world markets, Thorn merged its lighting interests with those ofAssociated Electrical Industries (AEI)^[12] to form British Lighting Industries Ltd,^[13] taking a controlling 65% share (the remaining 35% being acquired three years later). AEI Lamp and Lighting brought to the BLI group three significant lighting interests:British Thomson-Houston (BTH) which owned major factories, especially at Melton Road inRushey Mead,Leicester^[14] in the East Midlands of England (producingdischarge lamps) and inHereford, near the Welsh border (making luminaires), and sold lamps under the ‘Mazda’ brand;^[15]Metropolitan-Vickers (MV) which drew supplies from the BTH factories, selling them under the 'Metrovick' brand; and theEdison & Swan Electric Light Company (Ediswan), which had recently transferred its factory atPonders End^[16] and ‘Royal Ediswan’ brand over to BTH.Within a year of its formation BLI reorganised - consolidating laboratories, factories, and selling functions - to operate under just three main brands: Atlas, Mazda and Ekco (the remaining 49% interest in Ekco-Ensign being secured in 1966). Once complete, in 1969, the BLI name was changed to Thorn Lighting Ltd and subsequently the Ekco and Atlas brand names were replaced by the Thorn name.

Substantial export growth followed, quickly earning aQueen's Award for Export Achievement, in 1968, and five years laterRomford Export Centre opened, stocking over 10,000 items.

By 1976 over 50% of sales were from outside the United Kingdom. 1979 saw Thorn acquire Gebr Kaiser GmbH & Co. Leuchten K.G, a West German manufacturer of lighting fittings, and two years later close the Tottenham lamp factory.

In 1987 the purchase of the Jarnkonst group of Nordic light fitting companies and closure of the Buckie lamp factory signalled a new drive by parent Thorn EMI to trade an export and ‘colonies’ mentality for a multi-cultural, international outlook, one that took account of the forthcomingSingle European Act. Gaining critical mass in lighting fixtures – defined as 10% market share in any one county – was identified as a priority.

In 1988 Thorn EMI bought the French group Holophane to gain access to its luminaire subsidiary, Europhane. TheJardine Pacific relationship in Asia was developed into an 18-yearjoint-venture, and the lighting brands ofSydney basedHoward Smith were acquired.

On 14 November 1990, Thorn announced that it had agreed to sell its principal light source interests toGE Lighting of the United States. Under the agreement, GE acquired the lamp plants at Enfield, Leicester^[17] and Wimbledon, as well as Thorn's 51% in SIVI Illuminazione in Italy and 100% holding in Gluhlampenfabrik Jahn, a small specialist manufacturer in Germany. Thorn subsequently closed its Merthyr Tydfil lamp factory, consolidated its UK distribution centres and sold its South African business. In 1991, Thorn wonManagement Today's Business in Europe Award.^[18]

Using Hong Kong as a platform, the company entered Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and Japan, while additional offices and agents were established in Eastern Europe. In 1992, placing staff in Jardine offices throughout mainland China secured more projects^[19] (at £35mHong Kong International Airport became, and remains today, Thorn's largest ever contract) and laid the groundwork for local manufacturing. TheGuangzhou fluorescent fittings factory opened in 1996 andTianjin followed a year later, making road and tunnel luminaires. That same year, an interest in Thorn India was established. European activities centred on the purchase of Jakobsson in Denmark.

On-going consolidation in the late 1990s saw the closure of the Hereford factory and luminaire production transfer from the Kaiser Leuchten factory to other sites.

The new millennium marked a new beginning as the Zumtobel Group invested heavily in Thorn, particularly in technological innovation, and consolidating the former regionally structured production operations of Zumtobel and Thorn into a single worldwide supply chain. It also sought organic growth in clearly defined regions and market sectors.^{[citation needed]}

In 2006, the Zumtobel Group sold Thorn's airfield ground lighting activities (Thorn AFL) to the Swedish airport specialist Safegate,^[20] and two years later merged two former luminaire production facilities to form a new plant atWetherill Park, Sydney.

In 2009, Thorn invested in a new factory, laboratory and training and exhibition complex (the Thorn Academy of Light) in Spennymoor.^[21] The Distribution Centre at the former site nearby was retained. The plant was named UK Factory of the Year for 2009.^[22] This year also saw Thorn and Hess AG of Germany enter into a long-term sales partnership for outdoor lighting products.^[23] Initially, activity centred on Germany, where Hess’ subsidiary, Vulkan, marketed Thorn's range, but further agreements were reached in 2011, extending Thorn rights to Hess products in France, East and Southeast Europe, and the UK and Ireland.

• Lighting brands
• Manufacturing companies established in 1928
• Manufacturing companies based in London
• 1928 establishments in England

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