Thorn EMI's wide range of business covered the following principal areas of activity; retail/rentals, electronics, defence, software, music, television broadcasting, lighting and film and cinema.
Retail and rental Thorn Television Rentals (TTR) comprised two companies on merger,
Radio Rentals and DER (Domestic Electric Rentals Ltd). The EMI group also included the
HMV stores. In 1987, Thorn EMI acquired
Rent-A-Center in the United States for $594 million which had 469 stores on acquisition. Some stores were also converted to the Fona brand. By the 1990s, Rumbelows was making losses and Thorn closed the remaining 285 Rumbelows shops and 36 Fona stores in 1995. In 1995, Thorn EMI bought
Dillons the Bookstore from
Pentos and immediately closed 40 of the 140 Dillons bookstore locations. Of the remaining 100 stores, most kept the name Dillons, while the remainder were
Hatchards and
Hodges Figgis.
Music The
EMI label expanded greatly as part of Thorn EMI. In 1989, Thorn EMI bought a 50% interest in
Chrysalis Records, buying the outstanding 50% in 1991. In one of its highest-profile and most expensive acquisitions, Thorn EMI took over
Richard Branson's
Virgin Records in 1992 for £510 million. Thames Television was acquired by
Pearson Television in mid-1993.
Lighting In 1987, the purchase of the Jarnkonst group of Nordic light fitting companies by
Thorn Lighting and closure of the Buckie lamp factory signalled a new drive by parent Thorn EMI to trade an export and 'colonies' mentality for a multi-cultural, international outlook, one that took account of the forthcoming
Single European Act. Gaining critical mass in lighting fixtures – defined as 10% market share in any one county – was identified as a priority. In 1988, Thorn EMI bought the French group Holophane to gain access to its luminaire subsidiary, Europhane. In November 1990, Thorn EMI announced that it had agreed to sell its principal light source interests to
GE Lighting. Under the agreement, GE acquired the lamp plants at Enfield, Leicester and Wimbledon, as well as Thorn's 51% in SIVI Illuminazione in Italy and 100% holding in Gluhlampenfabrik Jahn. Thorn EMI subsequently closed its Merthyr Tydfil lamp factory, consolidated its UK distribution centres and sold its South African business. In 1994, following a
leveraged management buy-out, Thorn Lighting Ltd floated on the London Stock Exchange as TLG plc (the Thorn Lighting Group).
Defence From its formation until the mid-1990s, Thorn EMI was one of the United Kingdom's largest defence companies. The
MEL Division, acquired from
Philips, was involved in radar, electronic warfare, and communications. The MEL communications business was sold to
Thomson-CSF, now
Thales. In 1995, the various defence businesses were sold: • Thorn EMI Electro Optics to
Pilkington Optronics • Thomson Thorn Missile Electronics to Thomson-CSF, now Thales • Thorn Sensors Group to
Racal (to become Racal-Thorn Wells, now also part of Thales) • Thorn Microwave Devices (Microwave tubes and transmitters) was acquired by its management in an MBO, becoming TMD Technologies Ltd (acquired by CPI in 2021 and now part of CPI-EDB owned by Transdigm Inc). • Thorn Electron Tubes also acquired by its management becoming Electron Tubes Ltd.
Machine Tools In the early 1980s, Thorn EMI Machine Tools manufactured Computerised Numerical Controlled (CNC) machine tools at its EMI-MEC Limited factory in Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh, Hampshire.
Computer software Home software In the early to mid-1980s, Thorn EMI Video Programmes released a number of
games for several
home computer formats, initially under their own name. These included
Computer War,
Tank Commander,
Snooker and Billiards,
8-Ball and Tournament Pool,
Darts,
Cribbage and Dominoes (1981),
Gold Rush,
Mutant Herd,
Road Racer,
Volcanic Planet (1983), and
River Rescue (1982). They received a lukewarm reception with no major hits, although Snooker and Billiards did reach No. 6 in the UK Atari Charts. From 1981 until about 1983, Thorn EMI Video Programmes was based in the Thorn EMI head office, Orion House on Upper St Martin's Lane, near
Seven Dials in central London before later moving to an office in
Soho. The label was renamed
Creative Sparks Advanced Product Development Centre This small subsidiary further developed existing products, as well as introducing new ones. It was based in
St Lawrence House,
Broad Street, Bristol. Manager: Derek Williams Accountant: John Peacock Secretaries: Dawn Chick & Rachel Bessell. Engineers: Jan Wojna Frank Shirvani Alan Drake John Linney Martyn Wyatt
Consumer electronics Ferguson Ferguson Radio Corporation was owned by Thorn Electical Industries then subsequently by Thorn EMI until its sale to
Thomson in 1987.
Kenwood Limited sold small appliances and is now owned by
DeLonghi.
Thorn EMI's film and video interests Following the merger, EMI's film division was renamed Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment. The newly merged company continued the film interests EMI had acquired over the preceding decade; these had included the former
Associated British Picture Corporation, and their facilities at
Elstree Studios, Shenley Road, Borehamwood and
ABC Cinemas. Thorn EMI Video was established in 1981. Thorn EMI released films on video from various film companies including
Orion Pictures (
First Blood,
The Terminator),
New Line Cinema (
The Evil Dead,
Xtro), and
Universal (
Bad Boys,
Frances) in the 1980s. (The Thorn EMI Video label was also used for
their early home software releases). In April 1986, Thorn EMI sold Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment and the film library, Thorn EMI Video, and ABC Cinemas to businessman
Alan Bond. Bond, in turn, sold it to
The Cannon Group a week later. HBO maintained an involvement the video company, which became HBO/Cannon Video. Cannon left operations and the company was eventually called
HBO Video in 1987.
Leisure Many of EMI's leisure interest were sold the year after the merger but EMI Social Centres chain of bingo halls remained with Thorn EMI. ==After demerger==