Company History

British Thomson-Houston to GEC.

The Thomson-Houston partnership started in Philadelphia with Elihu Thomson, who was born in Manchester in 1853. The family emigrated to Philadelphia where he studied at the Central High School and met E J Houston, who was born in 1847 in Alexandria, Virginia. They both became interested in electricity and developed a dynamo, arc lamp and transformers. Together they formed The American Electric Company. They moved to a shoe factory in Lynn, Massachusetts and in 1892 formed the Thomson-Houston Electric Company.

The US based American Electric Company sold their products to the English market through the the Laing, Wharton & Down Company, formed in 1886 and incorporating in 1889. The American Electric Company was later renamed the Thomson-Houston Company and in 1892 became the General Electric Company (USA), following the merger of the Thomson-Houston Company and Edison General Electric. Two years later, in 1894, the Laing, Wharton and Down Construction Syndicate was renamed British Thomson-Houston (BTH) having acquired the British rights to the Thomson-Houston patents, with BTH being majority-owned by General Electric Company (USA), with offices at 38 Parliament Street, Westminster.

The Power Act of 1900, which would bring electricity supplies to large areas of the country, included BTH as one of the suppliers. Rugby was selected as a production centre, aided by nearby coal supplies and good railway connections. 25 acres of land were purchased in 1900 from Thomas Hunter & Co., railway wagon builders, for £10,000. Manufacturing commenced in March 1902, principally steam turbines, motors, converters & switchgear.

In October 1901 staff were moved from London to the Rugby works. In 1904 BTH became the contractors for the Central London and Great Northern and City lines electrification using direct current. 

1909 saw BTH provide electrical equipment for London's first trolley buses. Equally important was the production of light bulbs, made possible by the growth of the electricity grid. Expansion because of World War One and afterwards saw BTH factories established at Birmingham, Chesterfield, Coventry, Lutterworth & Willesden, with production now featuring domestic appliances. 

Over time BTH became well known for steam turbines and electrical systems. The diversity of BTH was illustrated in 1922 when it became one of six telecommunications companies to found the British Broadcasting Company (BBC).

The various BTH works specialised in items produced: 

• Rugby; turbo plant, heavy machinery, electric traction equipment and lighting and radio material; 

• Birmingham - electric motors; 

• Coventry - radio apparatus and fractional horse-power motors;

• Willesden - switch gear; 

• Chesterfield – lamp products.

A proposed merger of a number of electrical companies in 1926, headed by GE of America, came to nothing. However, in 1928 BTH merged with Metropolitan Vickers. Also included were the companies Edison Swan Electric Company (Ediswan) and Ferguson, Pailin of Higher Openshaw, Manchester (which BTH had been in the process of buying). The merger included the acquisition of the ordinary shares in BTH held by General Electric of USA. In 1929, the merged entities became known as Associated Electrical Industries (AEI). Although Metropolitan-Vickers & BTH were now under the same roof with very similar product lines, they kept their identities & operations separate, which would eventually lead to serious commercial rivalry between them, causing a serious internal destabilising influence for AEI. This combination would be one of the few companies with the ability to compete with Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company or the English Electric Company. Poor communication across the companies and intense rivalry amongst other things prevented AEI from gaining effective control.

The Depression years hit the company hard, but AEI continued to expand its BTH Rugby plant. During 1935/1936 the Rugby plant was involved with Frank Whittle in constructing one of the world's first jet engines. BTH appeared uninterested in the development of the jet engine in 1943 and Rolls Royce took over the production.

The successes for other parts of BTH organisation continued into the 1950s and by 1956 the main companies in the AEI Group were: BTH, Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co, Edison Swan Electric Co, Ferguson, Pailin and Co, AEI Lamp and Lighting Co, Hotpoint Electric Appliance Co, Coldrator, Newton Victor, Premier Electric Heaters, Siemens Brothers and Co, Sunvic Controls & AEI-Birlec, with BTH constructing Europe's largest turbine works, at Larne, Northern Ireland, in 1957.

During 1957 & 1958, reorganisation commenced to assimilate the subsidiary companies into one, with all to use the AEI brand name, whilst separate trading of the constituent companies would cease. On January 1st 1960, AEI stopped using the names BTH and Metrovick. The main manufacturing companies were reorganised into divisions of AEI: Turbine-Generator, Transformer, Traction, Switchgear, Instrumentation, Electronic Apparatus, Heavy Electrical Plant, Motor and Control Gear, Cables, Construction (Cables and Lines) Radio and Electronic Components & Telecommunications. What was planned on paper suffered badly in reality. Sales fell in the heavy electrical industry because the brand name 'AEI' was unknown, leading to a serious drop in AEI's stock price. The two separate management structures were never successfully combined and by the mid-1960s the entire AEI empire was in financial trouble. 

By 1961 AEI was Britain's largest electrical manufacturer including design, manufacture and distribution; the company had 103,450 employees with works in more than fifty UK towns. Lancashire Dynamo & Crypto of Mosley Road, Trafford Park, Manchester, was purchased by AEI Rugby and all the products transferred to Rugby works for completion. Many were old fashioned cast iron framed pump motors, but these filled the factory and maintained the workforce as the factory was so short of orders. The LDC factory in Trafford Park was closed down in 1968.

Continued attempts to bring the two divisions together did not meet with the greatest of success, however all would be of no consequence when the British GEC successfully bid for AEI in 1967. At the time the 'AEI' brands included Metropolitan-Vickers, BTH, Edison Swan and Ediswan, Siemens Brothers, Hotpoint, Birlec and W. T. Henley.  With this acquisition, GEC became the United Kingdom's largest electrical group.

English Electric Ltd. merged into the GEC Group with government assistance and at last the integration of all the business elements commenced, although ot without some severe closures and relocations.  In Rugby, GEC Large Machines Ltd became the major manufacturer on Mill Road. GEC Industrial Controls Ltd, Controls & Rectifiers + Vacuum Equipment remained in Rugby, with the English Electric Kidsgrove, Stoke on Trent site making LTAC equipment, drives and GEM80 etc. GEC Marine and Industrial Gears Ltd incorporated Modern Wheel Drive from Slough. GEC Electrical Projects Ltd, Boughton Road, was formed out of the AEI Heavy Plant Division, the GEC plant Co-ordination Division from Witton Birmingham and the English Electric Metals and Mining Division from Stafford.  GEC Overseas Services of Kemble Street, London was transferred to Boughton Road with their airfield lighting products. GEC Turbine Generators Ltd Newbold Road was formed from the existing English Electric site, the GEC Erith factory and run in conjunction with the large turbine factory in Trafford Park,Manchester.

During the 1980s, the Mill Road and Leicester Road facilities at Rugby were downsized, with many building being torn down and the land reused for new retail developments and housing, with St. Modwen Properties building the new Warwickshire College and Technology Drive replacing the original BTH Main Drive through the works.

Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company Ltd. of Trafford Park, Manchester.

Founded in 1899 as British Westinghouse Electrical & Manufacturing Company by the American George Westinghouse, the new factory was built on the Trafford Estate with close links to the nearby docks and ship canal. Costing £1.25 million pouds, it was completed in 18 months.  It became Metropolitan-Vickers after the First World War as they tried to sever the American links which were deemed to be hindering Government contracts. Formed out of the Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon and Finance Company of Birmingham and Vickers of Barrow in Furness and specialising initially in steam turbines, motors, generators and railway traction, they were affectionately known as “Metrovick” or “Metvick”

In mid 1938, in conjunction with A V Roe they built the Avro Manchester heavy bomber but the factory was bombed and the Manchester design superseded by the successful Avro Lancaster heavy bomber with Metrovick building 1080 of these. Their venture into turboprop and then jet engines in the 1940's produced the Metrovick F2 and F9 engines but the Ministry of Supply forced them to sell the business in 1947 to Armstrong Siddeley of Coventry, (which became Bristol-Siddeley and later Rolls-Royce)

They diversified into electron microscopes, mass spectrometers, signalling and locomotives; diesel-electric, the 1.5kV DC locomotives on the Woodhead line (Manchester to Sheffield) and then the Class 82 25kV main line passenger trains.

In 1957, they opened a new large transformer factory for the expanding national grid in Wythenshaw, Manchester which although successful, was closed under GEC in 1971 and the products were transferred to the Stafford factory.

The Trafford Park factory manufactured the then largest single shaft steam turbines of 2 x 1127MW for the San Onofre nuclear power station in California and the Enrico Fermi nuclear power station by Lake Erie in Michigan, USA (1 x 1202MW).

GEC to GE

The power side of the new GEC was merged with the French version of Thomson-Houston in their Alsthom (with the H). Large Machines became GEC-Alsthom Large Machines. The UK Headquarters of GEC-Alsthom was in the main offices, Building 86 in Mill Road.

In 1992, GEC Industrial Controls was split, with the LTAC power equipment from Kidsgrove going to Manchester. Later, Rugby's Vacuum Equipment was split with the bottles going to Montpellier, France, and the assembly to Openshaw, Manchester.

The Kidsgrove drives and GEM80 equipment and the Leicester Road, Rugby large drives became Cegelec Industrial Controls Ltd with Alcatel and Alsthom. Similarly, GEC Electrical Projects Ltd in Boughton Road became Cegelec Projects Ltd with the UK Headquarters of Cegelec Controls located in BR57, Boughton Road.

GEC Power Instrumentation in Scudamore Road, Leicester became Cegelec Power & Instrumentation Ltd or “PIC”. They were involved in the new Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station, but when the project lost support from the French specialists, the company folded and the Scada business was absorbed into Boughton Road, with Westinghouse taking on the Sizewell controls.

GEC Marine & Industrial Gears Ltd occupied considerable areas in Building 4 for their machine and hobbing shops but this business was sold to David Brown Ltd of Huddersfield and all work transferred there.

The “H” in Alsthom was dropped and Alstom became the new name.

In another reorganisation, Alstom bought Cegelec from Alcatel and Alstom Power Conversion Ltd was formed with the UK headquarters in Boughton Road. About this time there were repeated attempts to close the Electrical Machines facility in Mill Road and transfer product lines first, then all business to a new factory in Nancy, France. The stand-alone machines factory was very vulnerable but with future Royal Navy prospects and the leases of the Leicester Road site expiring shortly, the decision was made to relocate as much as possible into the Large Machines facility.

Airport lighting staff and a lamp production line were introduced. Drives laboratories and workshops followed. The Machines business was absorbed into the Power Conversion business and all the site and office facilities were refurbished. This consolidated facility was both more secure and Power Conversion could now offer a complete in-house drives package.

Other name changes followed: Alstom Drives and Controls Ltd, links to Transmission & Distribution of Stafford and then back to Alstom Power Conversion Ltd.

In November 2005 Alstom sold the Power Conversion business to a consortium headed by Barclays Private Equity and this became Converteam, with sites at Boughton Road, Mill Road, Kidsgrove, Thornliebank, Glasgow, and local service offices in Middlesbrough, Sheffield, West Malling, Gillingham & Swansea.

In March 2011 GE began the process of purchasing Converteam and this was completed in September of that year. The new name for the company was GE Power Conversion Ltd.

This means the company re-joined the General Electric Company of America again after one hundred years.

In April 2024 GE was broken up into three independent publically traded companies (GE Aeropace, GE Healthcare and GE Vernova). The GE name belongs to GE Aerospace, although the other two companies retain the name for now. GE Vernova contains the industrial sector of the old GE and the Leicester Road site is part of this sector. The name of the company in Leicester Road (as of 2026) is GE Vernova Power Converstion and Storage.