Williams Holdings


Williams Holdings was a major British conglomerate. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange, and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

History

The company was established by Nigel Rudd and Brian McGowan in Derby in 1982 to acquire under performing businesses. Its first major acquisition was J & HB Jackson, a Coventry based metal business, in 1985. The company went to acquire Crown Berger, a paints business, in 1987, Pilgrim House in the United States for £331m in 1988 and Yale & Valor, a locks and gas fires business, in 1991.
It started to focus on security in the 1990s, selling its paints business to Akzo Nobel in 1990. In February 1997, it bought Chubb Security for $2.1bn. It changed its name to Williams plc in 1998 and sold Yale Lock Company to Assa Abloy in March 2000.

Demise of the business

The company demerged into Chubb and Kidde in July 2000.