Manganese Bronze Holdings the early 1960s Manganese Bronze Bearings Ltd (as it was then known) was taken over by a Dennis Poore investment vehicle, Villiers Engineering Ltd, a motorcycle company chiefly known for its range of engines, creating Manganese Bronze Holdings Ltd. This company subsequently bought Associated Motor Cycles Ltd, owners of the Norton AJS and Matchless motorcycle brands in 1964. Manganese absorbed part of the Birmingham Small Arms Company in 1973 - which included Carbodies, the Coventry-based London taxicab maker, under chairman Dennis Poore, as part of a rescue plan initiated by the British government. BSA Motorcycles interests trading as Triumph were
SS Manganese SS Manganese Manganese was a coaster that was built in 1925 by Norderwerft AG, Hamburg, Germany as Wiedau for German owners. She was seized by the Allies in May 1945, passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and was renamed Empire Contract. Later that year, she was transferred to Greece and renamed "Herakleion". She was sold into merchant service in 1948 and renamed Laconia. In 1965, she was sold to Egypt and renamed "Manganese". The ship was deleted from Lloyd's Register in 1993. The ship was built in 1925 by Norderwerft AG, Hamburg, as yard number 605. She was