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Sir Anthony Gill

Heartland

Heartland

master brummie
Anthony Gill died on August 6th 2018 aged 88. He had suffered a stoke. Mr Gill was chairman of Lucas Industries between 1987 and 1994 and during his tenure saw the company dispose of the bulk automotive component making trade and the merger with Varity effectively sealed the company fate. With the policies adopted the sale and eventual closure of key auto part manufacturing sites in Birmingham can be linked to Gill's policies. Lucas is only name on a few products now. Until his death Alexander Gill steadfastly believed in what he had done at Lucas, and was proud of it. I wonder how many former workers share this view.
 
I note there is a Lucas HQ at Coleshill although they claim it as Birmingham. I did read their 'spiel' on their web site and noted that they fell into the same trap - well I believe it was a trap - made, by so many UK companies in the 70's and 80's of being charmed into wanting a 'corporate image'. This meant time honoured trade names, in the case of Lucas, like CAV, Girling etc. were lost. Decades of good customer support and reliability in the trade marks were abandoned and thrown out of the window: solely for the ego of those who knew the cost of everything but the value of little as they say.
 
Alan
Honoured trade names were often lost, but often the quality of the newer goods and the treatment of the workers would have been an abomination to those who originated the names
 
Certainly Anthony Gill was not a Brummie, coming from near Colchester, but he did run Lucas and there were those that looked down on Birmingham skill and enterprise and perhaps that might be the reason for the label. It appears that the decisions made during his time in charge of Lucas had a catastrophic effect on their business.

It would be interesting to discover the factors that caused this.
 
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