Pilkington
Parent NSG Group | | |
Website | www |
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Pilkington is a glass-manufacturing company which is based in Lathom, Lancashire, England. It includes several legal entities in the UK, and is a subsidiary of Japanese company Nippon Sheet Glass (NSG).
Prior to its acquisition by NSG in 2006, it was an independent company listed on the London Stock Exchange and for a time was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
History
The company was founded in 1826 as a partnership between members of the Pilkington and Greenall families, based in St Helens, Lancashire (now Merseyside), England.[1] The venture used the trading name of St Helens Crown Glass Company.[2] On the departure from the partnership of the last Greenall in 1845, the firm became known as Pilkington Brothers.[3] In 1894, the business was incorporated under the Companies Act 1862 as Pilkington Brothers Limited.[4]
Pilkington was floated as a public company on the London Stock Exchange in 1970.[5] It was for many years the biggest employer in the northwest industrial town. The distinctive blue-glass head office tower block on Alexandra Business Park, off Prescot Road, used as the firm's world HQ, and completed in 1964, still dominates the town's skyline.
Between 1953 and 1957, Pilkington employees Alastair Pilkington (no family relation) and Kenneth Bickerstaff invented the float glass process, a revolutionary method of high-quality flat glass production by floating molten glass over a bath of molten tin, avoiding the costly need to grind and polish plate glass to make it clear.[2] Pilkington then allowed the float process to be used under licence by numerous manufacturers around the world.
Pilkington, with its subsidiary
During the 1960s and 1970s, Pilkington used the flow of float royalties to invest in float glass plants in several countries including Argentina, Australia, Canada and Sweden, and also to acquire major existing flat and safety glass producers and plants in the United States (
A
A rank-and-file strike in 1970, sparked off by an error in wage packets, brought 8,000 workers out for nearly two months. The
In late 1985, Pilkington was the subject of an unfriendly take-over bid from
Litigation
Pilkington aggressively protected its patents and trade secrets through a network of licensing agreements with glass manufacturers around the world. The modern "float" technique (pouring the molten glass on a layer of very pure molten tin) became commercially widespread when Alastair Pilkington developed a practical version, patented in the late 1950s and early 1960s. As Pilkington plc owned all but one of the manufacturing plants around the world employing the float process, Pilkington had a monopoly.
Although the patents had expired by the early 1980s, Pilkington had licensed their use, and required the licensees to keep the details of the float glass process secret. Guardian Industries had tried to challenge Pilkington's dominance but had made a secret agreement to prevent new entrants into the market, with Guardian taking the lead to enable Pilkington, a British company, to reduce its exposure to United States antitrust law.[8]
In May 1994, the United States Department of Justice filed suit on the grounds that Pilkington had created a cartel by exercising control over the markets in which its licensees could sell float glass and construct float-glass manufacturing plants, and over the customers within each market to which each licensee could serve. It was claimed this was a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, because Pilkington's patents had expired and any trade secrets which it might have had in the process used by the licensees had long since become publicly known.[9] On the same day, the US government and Pilkington filed a proposed consent decree, which enjoined Pilkington from enforcing these restrictions against its US licensees, or against US non-licensees, or against non-US licensees wishing to export either technology or glass products to the United States. The agreement came into force on 22 December 1994, and expired ten years later.[10]
Pilkington Optronics
In 1988, Pilkington
Thomson-CSF acquired 50% of Pilkington Optronics in 1991.
In November 2006, Thales Optronics Limited announced the closure of its manufacturing facility in Taunton, Somerset, with the loss of 180 jobs.[14] In June 2007, Thales sold the beryllium mirrors and structures business of Thales Optronics Limited to GSI Group Inc. for an undisclosed amount.[15]
Takeover by NSG
In late 2005, the company received a takeover bid from a bigger Japanese company,
The acquisition was completed in June 2006, after the European Commission stated that it would not be opposed.[18]
Chairmen
An incomplete list:[19]
- 1914–1921: Arthur Richard Pilkington (1871–1921)
- 1921–1931: Richard Austin Pilkington (1871–1951)
- 1932–1949: Geoffrey Langton Pilkington (1885–1972)
- 1949–1973: Baron Pilkington (1905–1983)
- 1973–1980: Sir Alastair Pilkington (1920–1995)
- 1980–1995: Sir Antony Pilkington (1935–2000)
- 1995–2006: Sir Nigel Rudd (born 1946)
Operations
Pilkington has developed a
References
- Notes
- ^ Barker 1977, p. 31
- ^ a b c d "Competition Commission Report 1967" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 January 2012. Retrieved 27 December 2008.
- ^ Barker 1977, p. 75
- ^ Thomas Skinner (1908). The Stock Exchange Year Book.
- ^ Barker 1977, p. 422
- ^ Essay on The Rank and File by John Williams
- ^ BTR withdraws offer for Pilkington
- ^ "International Technologies Consultants Inc v Pilkington Plc, Case No. 94-17143". United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 6 March 1998. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
- ^ Professions and Intellectual Property Section, Antitrust Division, United States Department of Justice (25 May 1994), Complaint: US v. Pilkington plc and Pilkington Holdings Inc., retrieved 11 March 2009
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Professions and Intellectual Property Section, Antitrust Division, United States Department of Justice (22 December 1994), Final Judgment: US v. Pilkington plc and Pilkington Holdings Inc., CV 94-345-TUC-WDB, retrieved 11 March 2009
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Rolston Gordon Communications (2005). "Dates for the Diary". Microscopy and Analysis (80–81): 1988.
- ISBN 9781561590537.
- ^ Royal Aeronautical Society (1995). "Who's Growing". Aerospace. 22: 51.
- ^ "Defence jobs to be cut from depot". BBC News. 9 November 2006. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
- ^ "GSI Group buys Thales Optronics beryllium business". Reuters. 4 June 2007. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
- ^ "NSG to proceed with recommended cash acquisition of Pilkington plc". 27 February 2006. Archived from the original on 16 June 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
- ^ Pilkington in Japanese takeover
- ^ "Case No COMP/M.4173 – Nippon Sheet Glass/Pilkington" (PDF). 7 June 2006. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
- ^ "History of Pilkington PLC – FundingUniverse".
- ^ "Eco glass cleans itself with Sun". 8 June 2004.
- Bibliography
- ISBN 0-297-76909-X