Manganese Bronze Holdings - History

History

Manganese Bronze originally made ship propellers. In the early 1960s Manganese Bronze Bearings Ltd. (as it was then known) was taken over by Villiers Engineering Ltd., a motorcycle company chiefly known for its range of engines, creating Manganese Bronze Holdings Ltd. This company subsequently bought AMC (Associated Motorcycles), owners of the Norton AJS and Matchless motorcycle brands in 1964.

Manganese Bronze absorbed part of BSA in 1973, under chairman Dennis Poore, as part of a rescue plan initiated by the British Government. BSA Motorcycles interests trading as Triumph were combined with current Manganese Bronze motorcycle production to form Norton Villiers Triumph (NVT). BSA Guns was liquidated in 1986. BSA's components businesses became Manganese Bronze Components Division, comprising sintering, precision casting and metal powders: this division was sold in 2003 and went bankrupt a short while later.

In January 2003 Manganese Bronze launched Zingo Taxi, an innovative taxi hailing system using mobile location technology. This was sold to Computer Cab in November 2004 for £1. Between July 2003 and November 2004 Manganese Bronze also sold its property portfolio, including the land under its Coventry manufacturing facility.

In October 2006 Manganese Bronze and the Chinese automaker Geely announced the creation of a China-based taxicab manufacturing joint venture. An Extraordinary General Meeting of Manganese Bronze's shareholders held in January 2007 approved the formation of the joint venture. In June 2008 MBH announced the production of the first prototype TX4 taxi at its Chinese joint venture, LTI Shanghai.

In July 2008 Manganese Bronze announced that it would be laying off 40 employees as a result of the global economic downturn.

On 29 June 2009 Manganese Bronze advised that Geely had a notifiable interest in 6,085,000 of the Company’s ordinary shares, representing 19.971% of the issued ordinary share capital.

In March 2010 it was announced that Manganese Bronze would move the production of all tax cab bodies and chassis to Shanghai, with TX4 cabs for the UK market continuing to be assembled in Coventry. In the same month it was announced that Geely would increase its shareholding in Manganese Bronze to 51% through participation in a placing of new shares. In August 2010 it was announced that Geely had decided not to proceed the share placement, and its shareholding in Manganeze Bronze would remain at around 20%.

Manganese Bronze went into administration on 22 October 2012 after failing to secure new funding, and PricewaterhouseCoopers were appointed as administrators. On 31 October PricewaterhouseCoopers announced that 156 Manganese Bronze staff in the UK were to be made redundant with immediate effect, out of the company's then total of 274 employees in the country, with the losses spread across its manufacturing facility, head office and dealerships.