Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T05:15:58.386Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Innovation and Corporate Failure: Cyril Lord in U.K. Textiles, 1945–1968

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Philip Ollerenshaw
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article is a response to Patrick Fridenson’s call for more research into the life cycle of enterprises and especially into business failure. Its subject is the textile group established in 1945 by Cyril Lord, which went on to encompass merchanting, manufacturing, retailing, and finance, operating in the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Africa. Using unpublished records as well as the financial and trade press, the article explains the nature of Lord’s financial, mercantile, and manufacturing networks, and his rapid growth, based on product innovation, novel sales techniques, and massive advertising. The article then examines his subsequent insolvency and receivership in 1968. It contributes to our understanding of corporate failure and the role of the receiver, financial institutions, and government in that process.

Type
Articles
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , December 2006 , pp. 777 - 811
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2006. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Books

Bartlett, J. Neville. Carpeting the Millions: The Growth of Britain’s Carpet Industry. Edinburgh, U.K., 1979.Google Scholar
Coleman, D. C. Courtaulds, an Economic and Social History: Volume III—Crisis and Change, 1940–1965. Oxford, U.K., 1980.Google Scholar
Dupree, Margaret, ed. Lancashire and Whitehall: The Diary of Sir Raymond Streat, Volume II, 1939–1957. Manchester, U.K., 1987.Google Scholar
Hague, D. C. The Economics of Man-Made Fibres. London, 1957.Google Scholar
Harris, R. I. D. Regional Economic Policy in Northern Ireland, 1945–1988. Aldershot, U.K., 1991.Google Scholar
Isles, K. S., and Norman Cuthbert. An Economic Survey of Northern Ireland. Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1957.Google Scholar
Jeremy, David. A Business History of Britain, 1900–1990s. Oxford, U.K., 1998.Google Scholar
Lord, Shirley. Small Beer at Claridge’s. London, 1968.Google Scholar
Piercy, Lord. The Work of the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation Ltd. A lecture given to the Manchester and District Bankers Institute, 19 March1948. Pamphlet Collection, London School of Economics and Political Science.Google Scholar
Singleton, John. Lancashire on the Scrapheap: The Cotton Industry, 1945–1970. Oxford, U.K., 1991.Google Scholar
Stanworth, John, and Colin Gray, eds. Bolton 20 Years On: The Small Firm in the 1990s. London, 1991.Google Scholar
Swann, Dennis, et al. Competition in British Industry. London, 1974.Google Scholar
Swann, Dennis, et al. Competition in British Industry: Case Studies of the Effects of Restrictive Practices Legislation. Loughborough, U.K., 1973.Google Scholar
Thomas, W. A. The Finance of British Industry, 1918–1976. London, 1978.Google Scholar

Articles and Essays

Attfield, Judy. “The Tufted Carpet in Britain: Its Rise from the Bottom of the Pile, 1952–1970.” Journal of Design History 7, no. 2 (1994): 205–16.Google Scholar
Bowden, Sue. “Ownership Responsibilities and Corporate Governance: The Crisis at Rolls Royce, 1968–71.” Business History 44, no. 2 (2002): 31–62.Google Scholar
Brunnschweiler, D., and Martin, C.. “The Social and Economic Advantages of Four-Shift Working.” Textile Institute and Industry 7 (June1969): 149–53.Google Scholar
Collins, Michael, and Baker, Mae “English Bank Loans, 1920–1968: Transaction Bank Characteristics and Small Firm Discrimination.” Financial History Review 12, no. 2 (2005): 135–71.Google Scholar
Coupe, Stuart. “Decentralisation of Industry in South Africa During the Period of Apartheid: The Clothing and Textile Sectors.” In History, Economic History and the Future of Marxism: Essays in Memory of Tom Kemp, ed. Terry Brotherstone and Geoff Pilling. London, 1996, pp. 171–83.Google Scholar
Cruickshank, R. J. “Tufted Carpets: A Review of Recent Developments.” Textile Institute and Industry 7 (Feb.1969): 33–38.Google Scholar
David, Rhys. “Cyril Lord.” In Dictionary of Business Biography, Vol. 3, ed. David Jeremy and Christine Shaw. London, 1985, pp. 852–55.Google Scholar
Filatotchev, Igor, and Steven Toms, “Corporate Governance, Strategy and Survival in a Declining Industry: A Study of the U.K. Cotton Textile Companies.” Journal of Management Studies 40, no. 4 (2003): 895–920.Google Scholar
Fridenson, Patrick. “Business Failure and the Agenda of Business History.” Enterprise & Society 5 (Dec.2004): 562–82.Google Scholar
Higgins, David, and Steven Toms. “Public Subsidy and Private Divestment: The Lancashire Cotton Industry, c.1950-c.1965.” Business History 42, no. 1 (2000): 58–84.Google Scholar
Hunt, David. “Lord, Cyril (1911–1984).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison; viewed 9 Jan.2006. URL: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/38991.Google Scholar
Jackson, K. C. “A Review of Acquisition and Merger in the Lancashire Textile Industry During the 1960, Part I.” Textile Institute and Industry 12 (Oct. 1974): 307–11.Google Scholar
Jackson, K. C. “A Review of Acquisition and Merger in the Lancashire Textile Industry During the 1960, Part II.” Textile Institute and Industry 12 (Dec. 1974): 370–74.Google Scholar
Parsons, Mike, and Mary B. Rose. “The Neglected Legacy of Lancashire Cotton: Industrial Clusters and the U.K. Outdoor Trade, 1960–1990.” Enterprise & Society 6 (Dec.2005): 682–709.Google Scholar
Rose, Mary B. “The Politics of Protection: An Institutional Approach to Government-Industry Relations in the British and United States Cotton Industries, 1945–73.” Business History 39, no. 1 (1997): 128–50.Google Scholar
Ross, Duncan. “The Unsatisfied Fringe in Britain, 1930s–1980s.” In Banks, Networks and Small Firm Finance, ed. Andrew Godley and Duncan M. Ross. London, 1996, pp. 11–26.Google Scholar
Toms, Steven and Igor Filatotchev. “Corporate Governance, Business Strategy, and the Dynamics of Networks: A Theoretical Model and Application to the British Cotton Industry, 1830–1980.” Organization Studies 25, no. 4 (2004): 629–51.Google Scholar

Magazines and Newspapers

Belfast News Letter. 1968.Google Scholar
Belfast Telegraph. 1969.Google Scholar
Daily Telegraph. 1968.Google Scholar
Economist. 1954, 1968.Google Scholar
Financial Times. 1954, 1968, 1976.Google Scholar
Guardian. 1968.Google Scholar
Linen Trade Circular. 1954.Google Scholar
Manchester Guardian. 1955. (Became Guardian in 1959).Google Scholar
Modern Textiles Magazine. 1969.Google Scholar
Observer. 1968.Google Scholar
Sunday Express. 1954.Google Scholar
Sunday Times. 1968, 1969.Google Scholar
The Times. 1952, 1954, 1955, 1964–1969, 1976, 1984.Google Scholar
Viyella International. 1970.Google Scholar

Archival Sources

Ministry of Commerce Papers, COM 63, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast, Northern Ireland.Google Scholar