Media business Granada has its origins in
Sidney Bernstein's
Granada Theatres Ltd, a
cinema company founded in
Dover in 1930. The company was incorporated as
Granada Ltd in 1934, with Granada Theatres Ltd turned into a subsidiary. Granada has been listed on the
London Stock Exchange in one form or another since 1935. Granada entered the publishing business in the 1960s: it bought
Mayflower Books from their founding U.S. publisher, Dell Publishing, and
Panther Books (including
Paladin Books, founded 1966 by
Sonny Mehta) by 1968, which imprints continued to be run separately editorially, and added
Rupert Hart-Davis and
MacGibbon and Kee which it combined to form
Hart-Davis, MacGibbon in 1972. Eventually the various publishing companies were combined as
Granada Publishing.
William Collins, Sons acquired Granada Publishing in 1983, renaming it
Grafton Books after the editorial offices' address. During the 1980s, Granada became involved in the
British Satellite Broadcasting satellite television company. This went on air in March 1990, but merged with
Sky Television in November 1990 to form
British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), in which Granada had a minority shareholding for some time. In 1991, Granada Theatres Ltd was sold to
Bass. In 1994, Granada acquired
London Weekend Television. which a year later acquired
Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc. In March 1998, Granada announced their plans to launch a home video unit, eventually signing a five-year deal with
Video Collection International to launch Granada Video in September. Granada also bid together with
Carlton Communications and BSkyB for one of the UK
digital terrestrial television licences. They won the licence, though BSkyB was excluded from the company,
ONdigital, on competition grounds. It went on air in 1998, was rebranded to ITV Digital in 2001, then entered voluntary liquidation before closing in 2002. In 2000, Granada purchased
United News & Media's television interests, namely
Meridian Broadcasting and
Anglia Television; from
Capital Radio plc.
Red Arrow (later Granada) TV Rental Until 2000, there was a widespread high street chain called
Granada TV Rental in the UK, Canada and in the US. The UK headquarters were originally in Manchester. The company started life as Red Arrow TV Rental, using a red version of Granada's north-pointing arrow as its logo. This was a home entertainment equipment rental chain, similar to
Radio Rentals and
Rediffusion. The mainstay of the business from the late 1950s, and through the 1960s and 70s, was television set rental; during this period televisions were expensive to purchase and were often unreliable. In 1978, the company expanded its operations into the domestic
videocassette recorder (VCR) rental market. This new household item was also a high-cost purchase: for example, a
JVC HR-3300 VHS recorder cost £680 in 1978, . In the 1980s, the rental of satellite TV reception equipment became another opportunity for the company to supplement its declining income. As electronic product prices fell and their reliability improved, consumer behaviour changed from renting to buying electrical goods. This drift away from rental eventually resulted in the decline of this chain and others. Granada purchased Telefusion (a Blackpool-based rental company) and DVR. It went on to merge with Robinson Rentals, moving the Granada base from Sharston Road, Manchester, to the Robinson building on Ampthill Road,
Bedford. The two main players at this time were Granada TV Rental (GTVR) and Radio Rentals. Both were experiencing a decline in business and in 2000 they merged to form
Boxclever. Red Arrow was one of a number of experimental companies launched by Sidney and Alex Bernstein's Granada Group and was, apart from Granada Cinemas and Granada Television, by far the most successful. Others included Green Arrow – artificial plant and flower leasing to companies – and Black Arrow – office furniture and equipment leasing. This company was disposed of and has no connection with any other venture of a similar name.
Catering business Aside from media, Granada's other main strength was in the catering business. It opened its first
motorway service area in 1964, and established a chain of service areas across the British
motorway network. Granada was the first British service station operator to move away from fancy dining and instead offer a basic but quicker service. Soon, all the other operators took on this idea. Granada's hospitality arm was at its strongest in the 1990s under
Gerry Robinson's chairmanship of the group. At one time the company owned and operated 75% of the motorway service areas. It expanded into other areas of catering, including most notably the acquisition in 1996 of
Forte Group. This included rival operator
Welcome Break (later sold due to regulations), roadside chains
Little Chef and
Happy Eater, and Forte's hotels (including
Travelodge and
Le Méridien). In July 2000, Granada merged with
Compass Group plc to form
Granada Compass plc, as part of a strategy to separate Granada's media and catering interests. The demerger took place in early 2001, with the media business becoming
Granada Ltd. The motorway service stations were soon rebranded as
Moto.
Other ventures • In the 1960s, when
bingo was at its most popular, Granada turned some of their cinema chains into bingo halls. This business was sold to
Bass in 1991 and was rebranded as
Gala Bingo. • From the late 1980s to the late 1990s, Granada operated three
theme parks: •
Camelot was purchased by Granada in 1986 along with Park Hall Leisure. The park near
Charnock Richard, Lancashire, had a medieval theme and featured a
jousting arena. It was sold by Granada in 1998 and closed in 2012. •
The American Adventure was opened by Granada in 1987 in
Ilkeston, Derbyshire. The site had been sold by Derbyshire County Council after a failed theme park called Britannia Park closed 10 weeks after opening. The park was successful for several years and was known for having the tallest
log flume in the United Kingdom. Granada sold the park in 1997 after its business started to decline; it eventually closed at the end of 2006. • The
Granada Studios Tour was opened in 1988. It was a Granada Television themed park that featured sets, props and techniques used by the company. In 1997 the park gained
Skytrak Total, the world's first
flying roller coaster. The park closed to the public in 1999 and fully in 2001, during the company's difficulties with
ITV Digital. • From 1988, Granada opened and operated a chain of bowling alleys under the name GX Superbowl. In 1995, the chain was sold to Allied Leisure. • Granada purchased the Madison chain of nightclubs from Taz Leisure Group in 1989. • In 1983, Granada Microcomputer Services were set up to supply computer hardware to businesses. These services were originally marketed as shops but later became "business centres". This business was sold in 1987. • Granada expanded into book publishing in 1961, but sold the business in 1983. They also owned publishers
Leckie and Leckie.
Acquisition of Carlton and name change In 2002 speculation began to centre on when, not if,
Carlton and Granada would merge. In October 2003 a merger was agreed between the two companies, with Granada shareholders owning two-thirds of the new company. That the new company was in effect a takeover by Granada of Carlton was admitted in the first annual report of the new company,
ITV plc, which treated the company as effectively a continuation of Granada plc (with the Carlton merger regarded as an acquisition) for accounting purposes. The Granada name continues on as the official name of the North West ITV region and its on air regional news programme
Granada Reports and was used to brand productions of ITV plc companies on channels other than ITV branded channels in the United Kingdom until it was replaced by the
ITV Studios brand in 2009. == Operations ==