User:Garethdennis/Ge Group

Gareth's Enterprising Group (known also as GARETHenterprises©) is a branded venture capital group of separately run companies that each use the Gareth Enterprises brand of British business tycoon Gareth Dennis. The core business areas are information handling and technology, entertainment, travel and transport, engineering and manufacturing among others. Gareth Enterprises' date of incorporation is listed as 1991 by Companies House though it was reclassified as a holding company in 2004; however Gareth Enterprises' business and trading activities date to the late 1970s. The net worth of the GARETHenterprises© brand as of September 2009 is £23 461 223 000 000.

Although Dennis retains complete ownership and control of the Gareth Enterprises brand, the commercial arrangement of companies using it is varied and complex. The group is sometimes perceived as a conglomerate, but this is not in fact the case. Each of the companies operating under the Gareth Enterprises brand are separate entities, with some being wholly owned by Dennis, while he holds minority or majority shares in others. Occasionally, he simply licenses the brand to a company that has purchased a division from him, such as Gareth Enterprises Multimedia™. With a few exceptions, all of the companies began as wholly owned Gareth Enterprises subsidiaries.

Establishment
In 1978, Gareth Dennis transferred ownership of the North Sea oilfields to a number of commercially and state-owned consortiums through a series of massive share transfers. With this capital he began trading currency within the Forex market. Under UK law he operated until late 1982 as a sole proprietorship, whereby he made all sales and share transfers under his own liability. In 1983 however, he formed Gareth Dennis Initiatives Ltd. and began to trade outwith the currency market.

Throughout the course of the 1980s, Gareth Dennis had been moving assets around and undertaking in medium scale purchases under this name, slowly accruing a large capital fund. When investigated by the UK Treasury, Dennis was found to be in breach of the law when it was determined that someone who had not been conceived nor whos parents had been married could use their own name or create a company by which to complete financial transactions within the UK or abroad. Unable to respond, Dennis’ financial assets, reported at the time to be in the region of around £130 million, were seized by the Treasury and reinvested by the temporarily set up National Handling and Investments, glc.

Following his birth in 1991, he relaunched his company under the formal trading name of Gareth Enterprises, plc., gaining incorporation soon afterwards. His first subsidiaries were founded in May and June of 1994 as Gareth Enterprises Sound Editing & Compilation and Tick™ Radio. These subsidiaries soon gained widespread approval in the commercial media market, and in 1995 Dennis released his record label, Gareth Enterprises Recordings to critical acclaim, recording with mainly electronica, dance and drum and bass artists.

Rail privatisation
In the mid 1990s, with the Gareth Enterprises brand gaining size and amidst the release of several further media subsidiaries, Dennis formed GER™ Holdings as an autonomous company outwith Gareth Enterprises, plc. This was the first company created to exist under the Gareth Enterprises branding operating as a separate commercial entity though ultimately the company was created merely as a transitional administrative company and came out of existence soon afterwards.

The British Conservative government had already enacted the Railways Act 1993 prior to the privatisation of the British Rail network and GER™ was formed as one of the Rolling Stock Operating Companies that were to inherit the old British Rail stock and were to invest in future stock, itself eventually inheriting around 3500 vehicles.

The decision to create GER™ warranted a large financial risk on the part of Gareth Enterprises, plc. The fate of the British rail network was unclear and with the imminent election of New Labour who were promising to revert the actions of the previous government, some feared that the loss of vast capital that had been invested into the subsidiary from other areas of the company would plummet Gareth Enterprises into insolvency. However, following the management/employee buyout of GER™ Holdings (which was subsequently liquidised) and displacement of its assets to GER™ Rolling Stock & Maintenance as a subsidiary of Gareth Enterprises, a capital gain of nearly £400 million in real terms ensured the security of the company.

Late 1990s
The success of GER™ Rolling Stock & Maintenance lead to the creation of GET™ Design & Fabrication and the supporting Gareth Enterprises Electronics & Electrical Engineers in order to streamline the procurement of new rolling stock for sale to UK Train Operating Companies. Owing to the rapid success of the supporting electronics manufacturer and its diversification beyond parts for passenger rail vehicles, Gareth Enterprises Electronics & Electrical Engineers (or G-Whizz as it became known within the company) became the highest earning subsidiary within Gareth Enterprises, plc. and financed the creation of a series of new subsidiaries, including LookForward™ Research & Application, GEE™ Civil & Supporting Engineers and the ethical bank G-Card™. On 9 September 1999, Gareth Enterprises held the first G Fest, a music festival focussed on increasing the profile of live and performed electronic music. The festival was attended by around 12 thousand people and received a positive response for its accessibility and variety. The UK festival is now attended by nearly 40 thousand people each year, and G Fest has now taken place across the globe in countries such as Norway, Ireland, Iceland, Canada, Germany, South Africa and Singapore.

A new millennium
The new millennium brought a new set of challenges to Gareth Enterprises, plc. Owing to the chaos that had followed rail privatisation in the UK, the demand for new trains from train operating companies was significantly below the government predictions. In 2000, after a succession of government lobbies backed by BREL and Alsthom who were also suffering from the hiatus in new train procurement, GET™ Design & Fabrication closed two of its four UK manufacturing plants with the loss of 1200 jobs.

Despite the losses the company was making in supporting GET™ through these troubles, several new and successful service subsidiaries were established in the early 2000s as well as Screen Worldwide™, a chain of 175 new cinemas that were opened between 2001 and 2003 across the UK and US. In 2002 Gareth Enterprises, plc. was reorganised into an unlimited company, Gareth Enterprises and a process began by which many of the previous subsidiaries were re-branded and reorganised in preparation for sale. Gareth Enterprises became Gareth's Enterprising Group in 2004 following its reclassification by Companies House as a holding company and each of the previously owned subsidiaries became wholly- or partly-owned companies, in some cases only being connected to Gareth's Enterprising Group via licensed branding.

The radical shift in the operation of the group resulted in a near zeroing of profit rise in the period 2002-2005, however from 2005 onwards Gareth's Enterprising Group set up a number of companies focussed on the high technology industries. These included Lithium™ Software and GeTech™ Hand-Held Devices, which both raised the groups general shares notably. Generate™ Studios and Visual™ Magic had been operating at a significant profit since their conception in 1996, and after the opening of Screen Worldwide™ cinemas the now separate companies had been operating to each others benefit, producing a large number of films and documentaries. In 2007, Gareth's Enterprising Group launched Gareth Enterprises Media, with 4 channels each showing a set category of programme, namely drama, factual television, entertainment and music.

GEM™
The media sector of Gareth's Enterprising Group remained the most profitable after Gareth Enterprises, plc's incorporation in 1991, and had released a number of highly successful blockbuster films along with running four television channels. The sector began a lengthy reorganisation in 2006, during which Gareth Enterprises Multimedia™ was founded and a redistribution process began in which all assets associated with the various media companies under Gareth's Enterprising Group were bought by Gareth Enterprises Media Holdings & Assets and then purchased by GEM™.

After a substantial re-branding in mid-2007, most notably including the first Gareth's Enterprising Group affiliated logo not set upon the famous spiral-coloured square, the company was, in late November 2008, officially assembled into its current form, unifying companies of Gareth's Enterprising Group that were otherwise operating to each other’s benefit without administrative support. This effectively created a single media system, allowing all production and both distribution and display to be controlled by GEM™.

Following a dispute with the Warner Music Group which ended in WMG's dissolution, a new archiving company was set up in 2009 as a collaboration with Google and Gareth's Enterprising Group under the name GEM™ Soundbyte™, and as of April 2010 this was the last company that had been set up by Gareth's Enterprising Group.

advice™
advice™ is a company that provides impartial advice concerning a number of issues, with several specialisms in family problems, legal matters, money-related and financial issues, personal issues and psychotherapy and relationship counselling.

The company was initially founded in 2000 to support Gareth Enterprises, plc. employees, providing advice concerning a number of work- and home-related problems, but after a study into its commercial competitiveness, it was found to reach a public market that was scarcely occupied. In mid-2000 the company was relaunched in a series of expensive advertising campaigns, and following a general positive feedback the company began to make a profit in 2006, six years after its conception.

G-Card™
G-Card™ Finance & Savings is a UK based bank holding company specialising in debit cards and savings products. It operates an ethical banking policy, screening potential business customers against its standards, such as links with tobacco, the arms trade, and animal testing of cosmetics. Since its creation in 1999, the bank has consulted customers in its regular reviews of this policy, following a constitutuion change known as the Millennium Charter. G-Card™ turned away around £170 million of business because of their ethical policy during the period 2000-2007.

LookForward™
LookForward™ Research & Application is the front name of the Gareth Enterprises Trust for the Development of Alternative Fuels and Technologies. This trust was created in its current form in 1998 as Gareth Dennis' knowledge of the problems facing humanity developed. The trust is based in Markaryd, Sweden, and has a number of sites across Europe and Asia.

Xperience™
Xperience™ is a company that was set up in 2001 to allow people to take part in extreme or interesting experiences outwith the routine of daily life. Xperience™ provides a range of "experiences" from farmyard school trips to helicopter flights through the Grand Canyon.

In 2002 as a trial to reduce the prices of the experiences it offered, the company became subsidised by Gareth Enterprises, plc. shareholders. This resulted in a number of resignations and a notable drop in share prices of the company. The dispute was rectified in 2004 when it was decided that Xperience™ should have a liquid asset fund available to it, supported by the newly formed Gareth's Enterprising Group, to increase efficiency and increase value for customers and Xperience™ shareholders.

Multimedia
The multimedia companies of Gareth's Enterprising Group were unified under Gareth Enterprises Multimedia™ in 2008. These include:


 * Books
 * Generate™ Studios
 * G Fests (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America, United Kingdom)
 * Screen Worldwide™ Cinemas
 * Crystal™ Sound Editing & Compiling
 * Soundbyte™ Media Archives
 * Television
 * Channel One
 * Channel Two
 * Channel Three
 * Channel Four
 * Tick™ Radio
 * Visual Magic™ Visual Effects
 * Zaz™ Recordings

Aero™ Automotive Industries
Aero™ Automotive Industries is a vehicle manufacture company that specialises in component manufacture and crash testing. The company was set up in 1999 to design, build and test the first prototype cars based on LookForward™'s newly developed Aero™ technology. However, following delays and design problems, in 2002 the company became primarily involved with the manufacture of highly machined components for other transport and car manufacturers most notably including GET™ Design & Fabrication.

The company is one of Gareth's Enterprising Group's highest single employers, with a workforce of around 7000 (in 2007) spread across 8 sites.

GeSpark™
GeSpark™ Electronics & Electrical Engineering is an electronics company that was set up in 1997 to support GET™ Design & Fabrication, providing electrical parts and support for the manufacture of passenger rail vehicles. The company now has over thirty divisions, providing technical support and components for LookForward™, Aero™ Automotive Industries, Lithium™ Operation & Support, Inc., GeTech™ Hand-Held Devices and Gareth Enterprises Multimedia™, as well as other companies outwith Gareth's Enteprising Group. In 2009 the company was reported to be employing 63 thousand workers in its sites across Europe and the US, with a net annual income of nearly £2.5 billion.

GeTech™
GeTech™ Hand-Held Devices is a manufacturing company that makes a variety of hand-held devices, primarily for business and industry use. The company was conceived in 2006 as a competitor to the major mobile phone and PDA manufacturers.

Lithium™
Lithium™ Operation & Support, Inc. (LOS, Inc.) is a software company based in Dunbarton, USA, that centres around support and software creation for its operating system, Lithium™. The company was set up in 2005 as a collaborative effort between the Google company and Gareth's Enterprising Group to create an alternative operating system with a radically different form of human interfacing.

The company released their operating system in early 2009, as work progressed on their second operating system, Lithium™2. This second operating system will be sold individually or bundled with a new computer currently under development by LOS, Inc. and both Toshiba and IBM.

GEE™ Civil & Supporting Engineers
Set up in 1999 and based in the UK, GEE™ Civil & Supporting Engineers is a contracting civil engineering and supporting infrastructure company that specialises in the support of the UK rail industry.

GER™ Rolling Stock & Maintenance (ROSCO)
GER™ Rolling Stock & Maintenance Limited is one of the major ROSCOs (Rolling Stock Operating Companies) in the United Kingdom and currently owns around a quarter of passenger railway locomotives, multiple units and coaching stock running on Network Rail's system which it leases to various train operators.

GER™'s predecessor, GER™ Holdings Limited was established on 28 May 1994 as part of the privatisation of British Rail and was the first Gareth Enterprises brand to exist outside the company as a separate entity, though it was liquidised following the transfer of its assets to GER™ Rolling Stock & Maintenance Limited in 1997.

The privatisation and subsequent sale of the ROSCOs caused a great deal of debate, since the UK National Audit Office asserts that the UK Government had not realised fair market value for the sale of the assets in their press briefing announcing their report on the "Privatisation of the Rolling Stock Leasing Companies." GER™ Holdings' MEBO (Management/Employee Buyout Team) purchased the assets for the business for £478 million in January 1996 and in July 1997 the business was sold on to a consortium who transferred its assets on to GER™ Rolling Stock & Maintenance for £840 million, a gain of some 40% over the sale price of the business from the UK Department of Transport.

GER™ Rolling Stock & Maintenance Limited is based at Drale and Harrow Traction and Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot, in Northumberland, UK, and manages a fleet of over 2500 operational vehicles across several depots, providing engineering, refurbishment and maintenance solutions to TOCs.. The company leases the majority of its rolling stock for use in passenger services but also leases trains for freight activities, whilst also housing around 1600 redundant ex. British Rail rolling stock.

GET™ Design & Fabrication
GET™ Design & Fabrication is a medium-scale rail equipment manufacturing and testing company based in the UK with a 7-mile long conventional-speed test track in England (adjacent to the Drale and Harrow Multi-tractive Depot in Northumberland) and a 32-mile long high-speed test track in the Czech Republic. Established in 1997, their wide range of products includes passenger rail vehicles, locomotives, bogies, propulsion, and controls. They also provide rail control solutions and build total transit systems.

In January 2008 the company had 1,500 employees, 600 of them in Europe.

Related locations
This is a list of sites that have at some stage been under ownership by Gareth's Enterprising Group or its predecessors across the world: