TRIVIA: Examples of two or more unrelated companies (past or present) with similar or identical names

[TheSmiths82]

Maybe pushing it but Ashock Leyland of India are a bus and truck manufacture (I think they must have been partly owned by British Leyland at one point). Their logo is the British Leyland roundel and they now own the Optare bus manufacturer in Yorkshire. Their logo now on the factory has a big British Leyland roundel on it.

 

[Ivor]

Young’s (Brewery)

Young’s (Seafood)

 

[MotCO]

Maybe pushing it but Ashock Leyland of India are a bus and truck manufacture (I think they must have been partly owned by British Leyland at one point). Their logo is the British Leyland roundel and they now own the Optare bus manufacturer in Yorkshire. Their logo now on the factory has a big British Leyland roundel on it.

And wasn't Optare formerly Roe, which was part of British Leyland?

 

[Mojo]

John Lewis of Hungerford and John Lewis

 

[TheSmiths82]

And wasn't Optare formerly Roe, which was part of British Leyland?

Yep so it has turned around 360 in that sense. There are probably some people still working there who worked there when it was apart of BL.

 

[Whistler40145]

Ribble Motor Services and Ribble Cement

 

[Trackman]

Kenwood,

The Kenwood that makes kitchen gadgets and the Kenwood (now JVCKenwood) that makes audio equipment (previously using the names Trio and Lafayette).
The kitchen gadgets company is named from the founder and the audio company was a made up name for an originally American company to exclusively import Trio products, which were rebranded Kenwood. Later on the Japanese Trio company ended up buying Kenwood and adopting it's name due to Kenwood becoming much more recognisable as a brand.

Yes, JVCKenwood still going strong in the Ham radio world, think they very chummy with Icom now.
An excuse to post this Tommy Copper gag out again:

I went into a shop and I said, "Can someone sell me a kettle." The bloke said "Kenwood" I said, "Where is he?"

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Dragon - a Welsh petrol station chain and a Chinese maker of plastic model kits

Dragon computers? (now gone)

Apple Corps (Beatles) and Apple.

Went to court that, sorted itself out I believe, unlike the WWF.

Definitely trivial as it's a common name, but Smith's Instruments, Smith's Crisps and WHSmith are unrelated.

The crisp company is part of Walker's (and ultimately owned by Pepsi), while Smith's Instruments is now divided between a very large engineering company just called Smith's and a small company that makes vehicle instruments using the Smith's Instruments name under licence.

There's also a toy retailer called Smyth's, which I think is based in Ireland.

Smith's news is still going when WHSmith sold the company.

 

[Richardr]

Budweiser [US beer band owned by a Belgian company] and Budweiser [Czech Beer]?

 

[thenorthern]

Back in 2003ish I remember adverts on tv for Nationwide the Building society and Nationwide the company that attached awnings to houses. Then of course in the 1970s there was Nationwide the BBC One show.

On the subject of BBC I know that the British Broadcasting Corporation had to buy the BBC dot com domain off Boston Business Computing for $375,000 in 1999. At the time Boston Business Computing was known as BBC.

 

[satisnek]

There used to be a Japanese musical instrument/pro audio company called Teisco (may still exist as a 'badge').
Then there's the UK supermarket chain with one letter missing.

 

[alex397]

Budweiser [US beer band owned by a Belgian company] and Budweiser [Czech Beer]?

Hey, I was going to mention this one!

One of those brands is far superior to the other. I think many will know which one. The story behind both brands is an interesting one, I’d recommend reading about it.

I actually visited the Budweiser Budvar brewery a couple of weeks ago and had a tour. The company is actually owned by the Czech government. A state owned brewery!

 

[Thornaby 37]

EMR (European Metal Recycling) and EMR (East Midlands Railway)

 

[Peter0124]

I sometimes confuse Scotrail and Southern when both are referred to as 'SR'

Metrolink is also a planned railway project running through Dublin, Ireland. Linking the Airport with city centre.

 

[PauloDavesi]

Genesis the rock band & Genesis the upmarket car manufacturer.

 

[Springs Branch]

No longer the case, but when I first started travelling to Australia . . .
Durex - the roll of sticky tape (a la Sellotape); and
Durex - something for the weekend.

 

[43096]

5. South West Trains / South West Airlines:

• South West Trains - This is the train company that ran from 1996 to 2017 and was then replaced by the current SWR operater.

• South West Airlines - This is a major large budget airline operating in the USA and some neighbouring countries.

What makes things even more funny is that they have an almost identical livery. The livery that South West Airlines use on the airplanes is almost identical to the livery that South West Trains used on their 450 and 458/5 fleets. But the two companies are completely unrelated.

Or, as I call the, “South West Planes”!

 

[52290]

There's Thwaites brewery, late of Blackburn, now of Mellor Brook and Thwaites Dumpers of Leamington Spa. There's also Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica which may be a source of ice cubes for the brewery.

 

[philthetube]

Loads or premier businesses, premier travel still operate travel agencies though the bus/coach side is long gone .

At least 5 other coach companies , from a quick google, also loads of business services and others.

 

[Western Lord]

Maybe pushing it but Ashock Leyland of India are a bus and truck manufacture (I think they must have been partly owned by British Leyland at one point). Their logo is the British Leyland roundel and they now own the Optare bus manufacturer in Yorkshire. Their logo now on the factory has a big British Leyland roundel on it.

Leyland Trucks still exists in Leyland, Lancashire, but the trucks are badged DAF.

 

[EdinRH]

Bella Italia (a nationwide chain of Italian restaurants, formerly known as Bella Pasta) and Bella Italia (an independent Italian restaurant in North Berwick, East Lothian known as that since before the chain adopted the name) The independent restaurant has a notice up saying that they had the name first and will not accept vouchers, gift cards etc for the chain.

Henderson's (Sheffield) who make Henderson's Relish (a Yorkshire spicy sauce often consumed by vegetarians and vegans as an alternative to Worcestershire Sauce) and Henderson's (an Edinburgh vegetarian restaurant who formerly also had a vegetarian food store)

Rock Cafe in Howe Street, Edinburgh and Edinburgh Rock Cafe in Princes Street, Edinburgh (both now closed)

Americandy and Amerikandy (separate American candy stores)

Clydesdale Bank and Clydesdale Financial Services (a Barclays subsidiary). There was also an electrical retailer called Clydesdale which went bust in 1994 and was unconnected to either bank.

 

[Ediswan]

On the subject of BBC I know that the British Broadcasting Corporation had to buy the BBC dot com domain off Boston Business Computing for $375,000 in 1999. At the time Boston Business Computing was known as BBC.

There were also some earlier negotiations with Brown Bovri & Cie (Swiss) when the BBC Micro was launched.

 

[AY1975]

Bella Italia (a nationwide chain of Italian restaurants, formerly known as Bella Pasta) and Bella Italia (an independent Italian restaurant in North Berwick, East Lothian known as that since before the chain adopted the name) The independent restaurant has a notice up saying that they had the name first and will not accept vouchers, gift cards etc for the chain.

And the recently closed Fortes Cafe in Berwick-upon-Tweed - I don't know if they were related to the Fortes coffee bars that I mentioned in entry #1 at the start of this thread, but I suspect not as they had a blue shop frontal whereas IIRC the Fortes coffee bars had a red frontal.

Henderson's (an Edinburgh vegetarian restaurant who formerly also had a vegetarian food store)

which I also thought had closed, but apparently they've reopened albeit in a different location.

Rock Cafe in Howe Street, Edinburgh and Edinburgh Rock Cafe in Princes Street, Edinburgh (both now closed)

And Hard Rock Cafe, a worldwide chain which AFAIK is still going strong!

 

[AlistairCowell]

Subway - A multi-international sandwich chain, and Glasgow Subway. Apparently, there’s a Subway outlet right next to a (Glasgow) Subway station at Kelvinhall.

There is Smartwater water bottle and Smartwater (security) to deter thieves.

 

[jfollows]

Avanti -train operating company
Avanti travel insurance - based in Northampton since 2017 (founded in 2009 in Essex)

Arriva - bus/rail operator
Aviva - insurance company.

I know a couple of people who thought the bus company also provided their house insurance.

Also
Areva - French nuclear power company, mainly sold to EDF today
Arreva - fundraising software company of some sort

I was once talking to a French lady and we were both surprised when I wrongly said that the company she was talking about ran my local bus service.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

On a recent trip down South and searching for a beer I came across an outlet called Black Sheep Coffee, which I assumed was Black Sheep Brewery of Masham attempting to diversify. Sadly it seems Black Sheep Coffee has no connection to the brewery and there's no real ale to be had in any of their coffee shops.

 

[The exile]

8. HP:

• HP Computers - A company that produces laptop and desktop computers and other electronics.

• HP Sauce - A company owned by Heinz that produces Brown Sauce and i think some other comdiments.

I think the HP letters in both stand for different things but they are both always abbreviated to HP so they sound the same.

Hewlett Packard vs Houses of Parliament.

 

[lyndhurst25]

If you visited Doncaster North Bus Station in the 1970s/80s you could travel on services operated by South Yorkshire Transport and also by South Yorkshire Road Transport. The first was owned by SYPTE, and the second was an independent company founded before the county existed and not actually based in it.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

There's two excellent real ale pubs in Kidderminster, both called Weavers but completely independent of each other and in different parts of town. To be fair, one of them has started calling itself Weavers At Park Lane of late but it still must be confusing if your mate texts to say "See you in Weavers at 7"!

 

[TheSmiths82]

On a recent trip down South and searching for a beer I came across an outlet called Black Sheep Coffee, which I assumed was Black Sheep Brewery of Masham attempting to diversify. Sadly it seems Black Sheep Coffee has no connection to the brewery and there's no real ale to be had in any of their coffee shops.

I am not sure how down south you mean but Black Sheep Coffee shops seem to be on every corner of Manchester City centre these days, although not as common as Greggs.

 

[Dr Strider]

John Lewis of Hungerford and John Lewis

Continuing with the John Lewis theme, "Lewis's" was a department store in Birmingham and several other cities, not connected with John Lewis though many folk thought they were.

And the John Lewis store in Nottingham was until 2002 known as "Jessops", unconnected to the camera chain of the same name.