Mullard

Mullard Limited was a British manufacturer of electronic components. The Mullard Radio Valve Co. Ltd. of Southfields, London, was founded in 1920 by Captain Stanley R. Mullard, who had previously designed thermionic valves for the Admiralty before becoming managing director of the Z Electric Lamp Co. The company soon moved to Hammersmith, London and then in 1923 to Balham, London. The head office in later years was Mullard House at 1–19 Torrington Place, Bloomsbury, now part of University College London.

Stanley Mullard financed the rapid expansion of his factories to meet the demand of the new British Broadcasting Corporation by selling half of the company shares to Philips. In 1927 Mullard sold the remaining shares to Philips, becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary.

The Mullard factory in Blackburn was once the largest manufacturer of valves in Europe, with production peaking in the 1960s. As valves were replaced by transistors, the site began making cathode ray tubes for televisions, then optical disks in the 1980s, before finally closing.

As Blackburn declined a large new semiconductor factory was opened in Southampton, and itself was the largest factory of its kind in Europe.

Philips stopped using the Mullard brand in 1988. The Crawley defence electronics unit in Crawley was bought by Thorn EMI, which itself was bought by Thales. The two semiconductor manufacturing sites were sold to what is now Nexperia, with the Hazel Grove site still producing components.