COMPANY HISTORY: 1970S TO PRESENT DAY

The family owned Britains until 1984. With no family shareholder interested in running the company, it was sold to Dobson Park Industries - a small, Midlands-based conglomerate that made the Petite toy range. After the takeover, the company name changed to Britains Petite Ltd in 1986.

Britains’ headquarters and production remained in London until the early 1990s. Dodson then transferred some production to China and moved plastic moulding and vacuum forming to the Petite factory in Nottingham. Machinery for making farm diecast parts moved to Microlink in Swansea, before it was moved to Nottingham, where Britains now had its headquarters.

In Nottingham, model manufacture was split over two sites. The headquarters and main manufacturing took place at Chelsea Street, while assembly was done at a building a few miles away in Arnold Road. Between 120 and 150 homeworkers, and 80 inmates at a local prison, were employed to paint models.

In 1995, Harnischfeger Industries, a US company, bought Dobson Industries and, with no interest in toy making, sold Britains-Petite to Ertl in 1997. Ertl was a leading North American farm toymaker that had been making farm models since the late 1940s. It was owned by Hanson, a UK investment company, that in turn sold them in 1999 to Racing Champions, a leading America model manufacturer.

Under Racing Champions ownership, all production was moved to China and the works in Nottingham closed. The Britains-Petite name was dropped and replaced by Britains. Then, in 2005, Racing Champions, now renamed RC2, sold the W.Britain brand name and the toy solder range to First Gear, an American maker of diecast collectibles. Since 2011, Britains and Ertl have been owned by Tomy.