Industry Conglomerate Headquarters Derby, United Kingdom Defunct 2000 | Fate Demerged Founded 1982 Successors Chubb Limited, Kidde | |
Key people Sir Nigel Rudd (Co-Founder and Chairman)
Roger Carr (CEO)
Brian McGowan (Co-Founder) | ||
Williams Holdings was a major British conglomerate. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Contents
History
The Company was established by Nigel Rudd and Brian McGowan in Derby in 1982 to acquire under-performing businesses. Its first major acquisition was J & HB Jackson, a Coventry-based metal business, in 1985.
The company went to acquire Crown Berger, a paints business, in 1987, Pilgrim House in the United States (owners of Kidde) for £331m in 1988 and Yale & Valor, a locks and gas fires business, in 1991.
It started to focus on security in the 1990s selling its paints business to Akzo Nobel in 1990. In 1997 it bought Chubb Security for $2.1bn.
It changed its name to Williams plc in 1998 and sold the Yale Lock Company to Assa Abloy in 2000.
Demise of the business
The Company demerged into Chubb and Kidde in 2000.