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Thorn UK is based in Reading. The company is a subsidiary of Nomura. Nomura, a Japanese investment company, paid £980 million for Thorn in 1998.

Thorn is a 'household word' to anyone with more than a few years in the industry. But how much do you really know about Thorn? For example...Jules Thorn was renting electronics in 1933!

As part of our 'RTO Around the Globe' series, we put together a history of Thorn Industries. We hope you find it informative.

1928
Austrian emigré (Sir) Jules Thorn established the Electrical Lamp Service Company. The company imported lamp and radio components. In 1933 he established Lotus Radio, a radio rental business.

1932
Thorn begin making light bulbs in Edmonton, North London

1936
Thorn acquired Ferguson Radio Corporation (a manufacturer). The same year he renamed his business Thorn Electrical Industries.

1948
Thorn is the first company in Europe to mass produce fluorescent tubes. Thorn research develops a new range of phosphors and improves cathode design

1951
Thorn Electrical Industries took over white goods manufacturer Tricity Cookers. The white goods division grew to include brands such as Stott Benham and Parkinson Cowan. Thorn sold the entire division to Electrolux in 1987.

1961
Thorn acquired Ultra Radio & Television. Through a series of other acquisitions in 1961, Thorn Electrical Industries established itself as Britain's largest television and radio manufacturer.

1964
Sir Jules Thorn establishes the 'Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust'. The trust makes grants for medical research and other humanitarian purposes. Current assets are £92 million

1968
Thorn merged with Robinson's Radio Rentals. Radio Rentals outlets were combined with its own DER chain.

1979
EMI buys Thorn for £169m. The resulting company took the name Thorn EMI.

March 1986
Thorn EMI Television Rentals bought Radio Rentals.

1986
In the 1950s Fred Dawes developed a chain of television rental shops. In 1969 he sold the business to Radio Rentals. Subsequently, it was renamed Rumbelows. Thorn EMI transferred Rumbelow's rental accounts to its Radio Rentals chain. In the years that followed, Rumbelows failed to establish itself as a successful retailer. By February 1995 Thorn EMI had announced that it was killing off the chain, either closing its stores or putting them into one of its other chains.

January 1992
Thorn EMI announced it was pulling out of electrical retailing. It converted its Rumbelow shops to its rental formats - DER, Multibroadcast, and Radio Rentals.

1993
Thorn Lighting acquired from Thorn EMI in leveraged management buy-out

1994
Thorn EMI launches Fona, a British version of Thorn EMI's Danish electrical goods chain. It has credit sales and rent-to-own. In February 1996 Thorn EMI announced that it intended to dispose of Fona.

April 1994
Thorn EMI launched its Crazy George's electrical goods and furniture rental chain. The chain is oriented at the `cash restrained', i.e. those low-income households that normally have difficulty obtaining credit.

July 1995
Thorn EMI signaled its intention of demerging its electronics rental business into a separate company, Thorn, which would acquire its own listing. The rest of the company was to be renamed EMI Group.

August 1996
The Thorn EMI demerger took place.

February 1997
Thorn announced that it was closing down 90 Radio Rentals stores.

June 1998
The investment bank Nomura of Japan paid £980m for Thorn.

July 1999
Thorn raises £309 million through a five-year securitization against Radio Rentals contracts.

November 1999
Nomura put Quadriga, a subsidiary of Thorn that supplies entertainment systems for hotel rooms, up for sale. At the time, the company was supplying systems to 430,000 hotel rooms. Quadriga currently supplies 536,000 systems to over 6,300 hotels in 30 countries.

If you are aware of any other Thorn Factoids not listed here, please email them to news@rtoonline.com

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