Automotive Products, commonly abbreviated to AP, was an automotive industry components company set up in 1920 by Edward Boughton, Willie Emmott and Denis Brock, to import and sell American-made components to service the fleet of ex-military trucks left behind in Europe after World War I.
In 1928, they obtained a licence for the manufacture and sale of the Lockheed Hydraulic Braking System for the British Isles and Continental Europe, and in the following year they acquired a controlling interest in Zephyr Carburetors Limited which had premises in Clemens Street, Leamington Spa. A subsidiary company named the Lockheed Hydraulic Brake Company Ltd was formed and brake component manufacture began.
In 1931, the Borg & Beck Company Limited was set up to manufacture clutches under American patents from Borg & Beck in the USA. This allowed the company to sell British made Borg & Beck clutches in the United Kingdom, overseas British possessions and the British Empire (except Canada). The same year, the first block of a new purpose-built factory in Tachbrook Road was opened, extending by 1970 to some 70 acres.T.H. Wisdom & N.E. Riddihough, "50 Years of Progress", pub. 1970, p.6.
The company became the UK's leading manufacturer and supplier of clutches and braking, and was dominant in the market until the end of the 1970s.
AP also developed a close technical partnership with the British Motor Corporation (BMC), in the development of automatic transmissions. One of the most notable products of this collaboration was the unique AP automatic transmission used in the Mini and later BMC/BL compact models. The two companies jointly owned a plant in Kings Norton to produce the transmissions, and the matching variants of the A-series engines to go with them.
The business was bought by BBA (British Belting and Asbestos) in 1986.
The 1990 report stated that trading deteriorated in the second half of the year. A claim against AP in respect to an accommodation vessel for a gas rig, which originated before BBA bought AP, had been resolved and claims against third parties are in process; this was possibly about the AP business in Speke. Generally, the automotive side had seen more of a decline, including Pacific BBA. The clutch business acquired new original equipment business in Europe and the US. The automatic clutch and throttle system (ACTS) which combines electronic sensing and control to combine the convenience of semi-automatic transmission with the cost-effectiveness of manual systems continued to raise interest from manufacturers. This seems to be the start of the idea of an automatic clutch with a manual gear lever or paddles behind the steering wheel. The braking system seemed to be controlling on brakes for specialist vehicles and on an "all makes" replacement part programme - it seemed that AP Leamington decided to get out of high-level original equipment braking during the 80s, leaving it with aftermarket and small levels of OE, a condition that it still has. Steering, suspension, and racing continued to grow, as did the aircraft business. The holding in Landlock in South Africa was sold thus removing the ex-AP South African business, following the creation of Pacific BBA to take over the Australian, and presumably New Zealand, parts of AP.
At this time BBA was extending into many areas including plastics, aviation servicing and high voltage inductors in addition to its existing automotive, aviation, industrial textiles, and friction systems.
By 1991 BBA were in a major recession even though it was still growing. In Spain they acquired Aranceta, a clutch manufacturer, which became AP Spain and a new factory in Paris, presumably at Cergy-Pontoise for the aftermarket. The clutch and braking systems divisions had new contracts, and the US had a 5 year contract with Ford. Production contracts for ACTS, new generation brake and clutch systems and all-plastic hydraulic actuation systems had been received. AP also signed joint development agreements with licensees for electronic controls for automotive transmissions, lightweight braking and a new limited slip differential called SureTrac.
1992 was another bad year and resulted in redundancies and reorganisations. Both the clutch and braking systems continued to grow with both divisions securing new contracts and with new products in development, including the Automatic Clutch System (ACS) for the Renault Safrane, twin-mass flywheels and associated integrated clutch systems, and lightweight disc brakes, presumably the transfer from cast iron to aluminium. The aviation business was going well and they extended the flight servicing to create Signature, which was the last part of BBA and was bought out that year.
In 1993 they sold their holdings in Pacific BBA, thus removing the last of the old AP Australian and New Zealand businesses. A downturn in European automotive from the end of 1992 had reduced the OE business, while the aftermarket continued at the same level. The US side had managed to grow. ACTS had now gone into production, which is believed to be due to the Renault Twingo and Cleo; SureTrac had been licensed to Fuji Univance in Japan, who are now Univance Corporation, and a mechanical parking brake for disc-braked vehicles, at the time fitted to all Land Rover vehicles, was expected to become widespread. AP Clutch acquired a low-cost laser cutting cell to replace press tools and provide fast turnaround.
In 1994 BBA was recovering, and sold some businesses which did not conform to new criteria, established by a new CEO. At this point the group consisted of Transportation, being Automotive Friction and AP, Aviation Services and Aviation Components (AP Speke), and of Industrial covering various textiles and specialist electrics. By then, they had disposed of all of their belting products and the Angus fire production system. Uncompetitive units were closed or relocated, and new cellular manufacturing systems took part in clutch manufacturing.
The BBA 1995 report showed the sale of AP in April 1995 for £181M, plus later considerations if the purchaser, AP Group, achieved certain target internal rates of return. It was regarded as a good business, but was too small to compete on a global scale. The majority of the funding was provided by CIN Venture Nominees, along the shares bought by the staff and directors. The acquisition was for the traditional brake and clutch businesses and for a BBA textile unit in Cleckheaton and Germany which became APTEC. The APPH unit at Speke was retained by BBA.
AP Group 1995 report, for 9 months, showed turnover of £231M and profit of £17M, exceeding budgets. AP Italy had installed a fully automated drum brakes assembly capable of producing 2M brakes a year for Fiat. AP France had built a new manufacturing facility near Orleans for clutch production and R&D. AP Leamington had invested in flexible manufacturing systems, presumably BPCS. They had also created a joint venture for the ACTS system with Kongsberg Automotive.
The 1996 reports showed that the sales and profits for the year were in-line with the 9 month 1995. Investments were made at Leamington and Italy, and tooling was built for new products. Clutch received a contract to supply TMF units to BMW for 4 and 6 cylinder engines. That was expected to continue for 10 years and be worth £170M at 1996 prices. The TMF factory was built in 1997 for full production in 1998 - that is now the only building left on the Leamington site and is owned by Shire Foods. It also had a contract for the new Golf targeting 250,000 units at the end of 1997. Brakes had formed an alliance with ITT Automotive to support braking projects around the world. The aftermarket all-makes strategy led to increased sales. A licence was made with a Chinese business for the supply of clutches to Volkswagen, and a 50/50 Joint Venture had been created with a Turkish clutch manufacturer. The 1997 outlook was expected to be difficult due to the strength of the British pound.
So 1997 was difficult. While the sales and profits in Europe, improved overall sales and profits declined because of exchange rates. Cost reductions and redundancies occurred at Leamington. The Joint Venture AP Kongsberg ACTS business, which was loss making, was sold to Kongsberg Tech-Matic who then listed in Norway, with AP owning 7.5%, which was sold in 1998. They acquired the remaining 30% of AP Japan to give them 100% and 1998 ceased a low margin trading operation from them. The sale of the Leamington site was followed by a leaseback agreement. From this all of blocks 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 9 and north of block 12 were closed and put into development during 1997 and 1998.
1998 showed an increase in profit even though sales had decreased. After a reorganisation, all of the OE clutch and drum brake units in UK, Italy, Spain and Turkey were managed by the Italian team. The USA and French clutch businesses were bought under a common technical leadership, probably because of PFCH. UK, France, Benelux, Germany and Japan aftermarkets were integrated. A new drum brake extension had been made in Italy, with clutch investments scheduled for 1999. Clutch development in France had been extended for new orders and the US had won new orders for 2000 onwards. Production of the TMF units had been blocked by a patent dispute with a competitor (LUK). They did, eventually, win the case, but by then the AP business was in pieces. A decision was made to open a factory in Brazil. In Italy new contracts for drum brakes for Ford and Fiat had started, a new aluminium wheel cylinder facility had been commissioned and clutches for Volkswagen had transferred from the UK. France had started a programme to supply a clutch system to Fiat integrated with the Italian business. In Brazil a site was acquired for a new factory for clutch and clutch actuation, as part of the US business. The TMF patent court issue ended when the Munich court ruled in AP’s favour, though the competitor had appealed. Against that, AP has filed a counterclaim for unjustified interference with AP's business. This became a problem when LUK, having acquired Kongsberg Tech-Matic, sued, and lost, AP Group and AP USA regarding information that they thought should be in the business.
The idea was to separate the UK aftermarket business, APDS, from the OE manufacturing, APOE. APDS represented about 35% of the sales turnover and was sold to Delphi Automotive Systems in Feb 2002 for £40M. Along with that it took over blocks 16, 17, 19 and 20. Along with the split between APDS and APOE, the OE units were split into two businesses - AP UK (Clutch) and AP Hydraulics, leaving AP Group with a small office in Block 12. As part of that, APDS and AP UK decided on which people they wanted, and left everyone else to Hydraulics. As part of that, IT and Finance were left last and finally told in a meeting one morning.
In July 2000 they sold AP Racing to Brembo for £23M, against sales of £17M. At that point AP Racing had already relocated to Coventry. France had acquired new nominations from Renault and Fiat which should double its turnover. Drum brakes had new nominations from Renault, Ford and Fiat which should double their sales. The US had acquired contracts with Daimler Chrysler. TMF continued to work with potential customers to resolve a vibration issue. AP Hydraulics had acquired new contracts.