For such a famous firm, it is hard to find out good information on the history of Phillips Cycles. It is possible that J. A. Phillips & Co was established in Birmingham in 1904. It appears that the company moved to the Credenda Works in Smethwick, Birmingham in 1908. Phillips was described at the time as a maker of bicycles and, crucially, of bicycle components.

Phillips may have been acquired by Tube Investments in about 1920. At this point it seems to have been a manufacturer of bicycle frames and components, rather than of branded bicycles. After acquiring Hercules in 1946, Tube Investments brought all its many and various cycle companies, including Phillips, under one company - called the British Cycle Corporation. Finally in 1960 Tube Investments bought Raleigh and put the whole of the British Cycle Corporation under Raleigh’s control. From this point on, Phillips was merely a brand badge that Raleigh used as it pleased.

Throughout its existence, Phillips was as much a components business as a maker of complete cycles. In 1949 an Edward Arthur Millward of Phillips Cycles patented a design of derailleur, showing two variants, one which mounted on the axle and one which mounted on the chainstay. I believe that it released these deraileurs, branded a Phillips, in 1950, although my earliest evidence dates from 1953 and is for the axle mounted variant only.

I also believe that Phillips bought the Resilion company in 1954 and moved it from London to Smethwick. I think that Phillips wanted to develop Resilion as a specialist ‘lightweight’ component brand offering many different types of component. It certainly rebranded its existing ‘Phillips’ derailleurs as ‘Resilion’. The patent for the design of the Resilion Crimson Star derailleur lists Edward Arthur Millward as the inventor - just as for the 1949 Phillips derailleur patent.

I believe that the Resilion Crimson Star was produced into the 1960s, but after that Phillips, now part of the Raleigh operation, gave up manufacturing derailleurs.