Archive for May, 1975
Archive : Leyland-Innocenti reshuffle
Leyland-Innocenti, the Italian subsidiary of British Leyland, today re-affirmed its will to continue activities in Italy. A spokesman for the company, which employs 5,000 in Milan, making chiefly Minis, said Leyland-Innocenti planned to keep up production and even expand it for more competitive models on the domestic and foreign markets. Leyland-Innocenti, whose output exceeded 61,000 [...]
May 28, 1975
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Keith Adams · 
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Archive : Leyland to close main paint plant
By Clifford Webb British Leyland are to close their largest and most modern car painting plant at Trentham, Longbridge, Birmingham, as the £1.5m facility is operating at only one tenth of its installed capacity. It was completed only two years ago to handle up to 4,500 Allegros a week and was intended to play a [...]
May 22, 1975
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Archive : Two more Leyland resignations
By Clifford Webb Two more British Leyland executives have resigned after Tuesday’s announcement of the new management team for the unified car company proposed by the Ryder report. More resignations are expected. The latest departures are Mr John Carpenter, aged 49, sales and marketing director of Rover Triumph and Mr Bert Walling, 58, BL director [...]
May 16, 1975
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Archive : British Leyland in the red
British Leyland yesterday disclosed net losses of £42.9m for the first half of its financial year, against a loss of £12.7m for the same September/March period last year. The- loss includes a £29.3m provision after the closure of the Spanish subsidiary. Lord Stokes, the chairman, said yesterday that the figure represented the maximum estimated costs [...]
May 15, 1975
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Archive : New team for BLMC’s car division
British Leyland – has had to stop, production of Allegro, Maxi, Marina, 18/22 and some Triumph models because no suspension units are available. Output on Mini models, which was restarted last week after Leyland shipped back to Birmingham stocks of suspension units which had previously been exported to an assembly plant in Milan, is expected [...]
May 13, 1975
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Archive : Hatchet Job By Sir Don
DAILY MIRROR By David Thompson Two British Leyland chiefs talked yesterday of Sir Don. Ryder’s “hatchet job” on their management. One of them, managing director John Barber, admitted for the first time that it was Sir Don who told him he was sacked. The other chairman Lord Stokes, was asked three times if a hatchet [...]
May 8, 1975
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Archive : Barber shop talk
Barber shop talk Committee room 16 at the House of Commons was, as expected, packed to the doors yesterday with people eager to see and hear how John Barber, the sacked British Leyland managing director, would acquit himself in the face of questioning from MPs who are conducting an inquiry into the British motor industry. [...]
May 8, 1975
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Archive : Imports keep Mini line running
THE GUARDIAN By GEOFFREY WHITELEY Labour Staff British Leyland succeeded last night in re-opening production lines for its Mini range , which has been idle for nearly two weeks because of a strike at a components firm , by importing essential , parts from Italy. But as it did so, the shortage of components normally [...]
May 7, 1975
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Archive : Times on new BL chief
The Times on Derek Whittaker Whittaker, tall, thin and bespectacled, is not a man who impresses at first meeting. He is quietly spoken and shuns the limelight. At management gatherings he was often to be found sitting alone in a corner. This led to some colleagues describing him as “rather a cold fish” in his [...]
May 7, 1975
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Archive : British Leyland names five for top jobs as Ryder report reshuffle begins
Four former Ford executives were among the five new appointments announced by British Leyland’s board yesterday in line with the recommendations made in the recently published Ryder report. The four; along with Mr Alex Park, who was appointed acting managing director the day the Ryder report was published, were all recruited by Mr John Barber, [...]
May 7, 1975
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Archive : The Dunlop strike continues
24,000 idle as disputes plague Leyland plants By R. W. Shakespeare Northern Industrial Correspondent Total lay-offs at British Leyland plants rose yesterday to more than 24,000 as a result of disputes among components suppliers in which about 3,000 other workers are idle. Short time working and internal labour troubles in the corporation’s own plants have [...]
May 6, 1975
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Archive : It’s A Deal, Says Stokes
DAILY MIRROR British Leyland chiefs yesterday accepted the Ryder plan for a Government takeover of the ailing car empire. But they hope to improve the 10p-a-share Government offer. Leyland chairman Lord Stokes told of the decision , in a letter to shareholders. He took a knock at some parts of the report by Sir Don [...]
May 3, 1975
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Archive : Strikes and lay-offs stop 20,000 car workers
By R. W. Shakesneare More than 20,000 British Leyland car workers were idle yesterday with much of the Austin Morris division car production at a standstill because of strikes and lay-offs both within the company and at one of the industry’s key components suppliers, where another 2,700 workers were affected. It seems unlikely that any [...]
May 3, 1975
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Archive : Leyland Report is indictment of private enterprise
OUR INDUSTRIAL REPORTER THE RYDER Report on British Leyland published last week delivers a stunning blow at the incompetence of the company’s management. Possibly the most startling fact to come out of the report is the evidence on what British Leyland did with its profits. Over a period of seven years, BLMC made a net [...]
May 2, 1975
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Archive : Dunlop Strikes hits British Leyland
British Leyland has been first to be badly affected by component shortages largely because it was keeping stocks at its assembly plants low as part of the effort to deal with its cash flow difficulties. At Longbridge, Birmingham, production of Mini and Allegro cars has been halted and 3,800 workers have been laid off, together [...]
May 2, 1975
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