Private company

British Leyland

British Leyland was a British automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British.1

Last updated Oct 18, 2026.

Overview

1968Founded1
  • Industryautomotive industry1
  • HeadquartersCowley1

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British Leyland was a British automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partly nationalised in 1975, when the British government created a holding company called British Leyland, later renamed BL in 1978. It incorporated much of the British-owned motor vehicle industry, which in 1968 had a 40% share of the UK car market, with its history going back to 1895. Despite containing profitable marques such as Jaguar, Rover, and Land Rover, as well as the best-selling Mini, BLMC had a troubled history, leading to its eventual collapse in 1975 and subsequent part-nationalisation.2

How it started

1968–1974: Creation of BLMC, and the Stokes era

BLMC was founded on 17 January 1968 by the merger of British Motor Holdings (BMH) and Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC), encouraged by Tony Benn as chairman of the Industrial Reorganisation Committee created by the first Wilson Government. At the time, LMC was a highly successful truck and bus manufacturer – as well as owning prosperous car brands Triumph and Rover – whilst BMH (which was the product of an earlier merger between the British Motor Corporation, Pressed Steel and Jaguar) was perilously close to collapse. The government hoped LMC's expertise would revive the ailing BMH, and effectively create a "British General Motors". The merger combined most of the remaining independent British car manufacturing companies and included car, bus and truck manufacturers and more diverse enterprises including: construction equipment, refrigerators, metal casting companies, road surface manufacturers; in all, nearly one hundred different companies. The new corporation was arranged into seven divisions under its new chairman, Sir Donald Stokes (formerly the chairman of LMC). At the time of its founding, BLMC was the world's fifth largest vehicle manufacturer after General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and Volkswagen.

The seven divisions were:

Austin-Morris; the volume car division made up entirely of the former British Motor Corporation marques (Austin, Morris, MG, Riley and Wolseley), as well as Austin and BMC branded light commercial vehicles.

Specialist Division; the sports/luxury marques (Rover, Land Rover, Alvis, Triumph and Jaguar – the latter having moved across from the old BMC/BMH organisation).

Leyland Truck and Bus; the original Leyland commercial vehicles business.

From Wikipedia’s article on British Leyland, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Timeline

  1. 1986Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1968Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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