- HISTORY OF CHRYSLER EUROPE
- Shady
Janzeir's Chrysler Compilation (unedited)
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- HISTORY OF THE HILLMAN MOTOR COMPANY
The Early Years of Hillman Cars
During the 1860’s Josiah Turner and James Starley
formed the Coventry Sewing Machine Company and recruited skilled
engineers from the London area to join them, one of these engineers
was a man named William Hillman. In 1869 the company changed
its name to Coventry Machinists Company Ltd and like many other
manufacturers in the area embarked on producing velocipedes.
In 1870 William Hillman and James Starley patented a new bicycle
called the “Ariel” and by 1885 William Hillman was
a partner of the bicycle manufacturer Hillman Herbert and Cooper
producing a bicycle called the Kangaroo. Hillman's new company
soon established itself, and before the turn of the twentieth
century, Hillman was a millionaire.
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- With wealth came the means to fulfil Hillman's next ambition:
to become a car producer. Hillman had moved into Abingdon House
in Stoke Aldermoor near Coventry and decided that a sensible
plan would be to set-up a car factory in its grounds.
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- A history of the Rootes family.
Standing among the bicycles in his workshop, Mr William
Rootes, father of two boys named William and Reginald, decided
that the time had come for him to start selling the noisy machines
which were frightening the horses in the Kentish lanes around
his home. "There's a future in motor cars," he said.
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- The time was the turn of the century and Mr Rootes was a
better prophet than he knew. Motor cars were to become one of
Britain's greatest industries and his two sons were destined
to emerge as industrial leaders and as builders of their own
motor empire.
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- The decision taken by Mr Rootes that day in his shop at Hawkhurst,
Kent, was the seed from which grew the Rootes Group, an assembly
of companies formed for the manufacture, distribution, sales
and service of cars and commercial vehicles. Lord William Rootes
and Sir Reginald Rootes, the sons of the Kentish bicycle manufacturer,
became Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the group
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- William Rootes, the father of William Edward, later Lord
Rootes, was not a wealthy man, but a small-time business man
who ran a bicycle shop at Hawkhurst in Kent. Believing that both
his sons, William and Reginald, should start their career with
a good education, he insisted that they were sent to Cranbrook
School. By the time they were ready to leave school at 16, he
had prospered, adding a motor agency to his bicycle shop, but
neither son decided to join the family business, each preferring
to go his own way. William Edward started his career as a penny
an hour pupil at Singer Motors Ltd.; little knowing that he would
eventually own this company.
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- During the 1914-18 War he served as a lieutenant in the R.N.V.R.
and in 1917 he was given a special demobilisation in order to
pioneer a new development for that time - the establishment of
a plant at Maidstone to enable aeroplane engines to be repaired
instead of being scrapped. The war ended before this was fully
operative. He then contacted his brother Reginald, who by this
time had a promising career as a civil servant at the Admiralty,
and talked him into joining him in partnership in order to re-establish
the car sales firm of Rootes Ltd.
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- In 1919 Reginald decided to join his brother at Maidstone,
where they started to build an empire. Reginald was a great administrator
while William Edward was the salesman, showing an uncanny ability
for assessing future trends in public taste. By 1926 they had
acquired offices and showrooms in the heart of London's West
End, at Devonshire House. Within a matter of months they had
acquired other branches in various parts of the country and become
the largest motor distributing company in Europe. As they prospered,
many well known and old established firms in the motor industry
began to feel the impact of economic recession. But while some
companies closed down, the brothers accepted the challenge. In
1928, the Rootes brothers were the largest distributors in England.
The brothers saw the opportunity to go into volume manufacturing
production.
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- Karrier Motors was acquired and so was Clement-Talbot Ltd.
British Light Steel Pressings followed in 1937 and a year later
the Sunbeam Motor Car Company Ltd., was taken into the Rootes
Group and merged with Clement-Talbot Ltd
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- For these companies this was a new era. Instead of separate
plants with resources insufficient to meet the demands of extending
and changing markets, they were now part of a strong centralised
organisation into which each dovetailed smoothly. By cutting
costs and centralising control in a manner ahead of their time,
William and Reginald Rootes had formed a group which was a powerful,
almost self-contained giant.
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- The Rootes Group
The Rootes Group was formed by the acquisition of Humber
Ltd, Hillman Car Co and the Commer Commercial Vehicles Company.
These three companies were failing fast, due to outdated plant
and production methods, and gave the brothers a chance to put
their ideas into reality. The task facing the brothers was that
of turning failure into success - and they accepted the challenge.
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- In 1931 the Hillman Wizard was launched as a new car for
world markets. Although it met with only limited success they
were not deterred, and it did give them time to unfold their
ideas and to straighten out the firms they had acquired.
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- By 1932 the Rootes Group was taking shape and they launched
another car, the Hillman Minx, which turned out to be an immediate
success. Their ideas had paid off, and the companies had been
saved. Little did they know that the Minx name was to be used
time and time again over the next four decades and has now become
a classic name in motoring history.
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- Many people have said that when the Rootes Group acquired
these companies the cars they produced were not, and should not
be called Hillman, Humber, Talbot or Sunbeam. But these companies
had been building dated cars on dated machines and were in urgent
need of rationalisation and, indeed, some form of integration.
Apart from this, the brothers made sure that the identities of
the marques were not submerged and this policy was continued
until the Chrysler take-over in 1967. The luxurious Humbers,
the sporting Sunbeams and the quality Hillmans all retained their
distinctive personality.
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- With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Rootes factories
were turned over to the manufacture of military vehicles, William
and Reginald put their services at the disposal of the Government.
William was appointed Chairman of the Shadow Industry Plan and
he headed the Supply Council of the Ministry of Supply, he played
a prominent part in the application of quantity production methods
to aero-engine and aircraft construction, not in 1939, but three
years earlier. Rootes was the first company to enter the Government's
Shadow Factory Scheme for the volume manufacture of aeroplanes
and aero engines. By the time the sirens were sounding, Rootes
factories were turning out aircraft as well as vehicles for the
R.A.F. and other services.
- But perhaps the work which caused William Rootes the greatest
satisfaction during the war was the part he played after the
terrible night of November 14/15, 1940, when the Germans dropped
35,000 incendiary bombs, 50 land mines and 1,400 high explosive
bombs on the city of Coventry. The task of leading a reconstruction
committee to set Coventry on its feet again was given to William
Rootes. In 1942, as a result of the raising of Coventry and other
prodigious war work, William became Sir William Rootes, Knight
Commander of the British Empire.
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- Peacetime assessments in 1945 revealed that the Rootes Group
had made one out of every seven bombers produced in the United
Kingdom during the war, 60 per cent of the armoured cars and
30 percent of the scout cars. It had also built 50,000 aeroplane
engines, had repaired 28,000 others wrecked in crashes or in
battle, had repaired more than 12,000 vehicles for the Army and
the Royal Air Force and had assembled 20,000 other vehicles imported
from allied countries.
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- At the beginning of the war, 17,000 employees were on the
Rootes pay-roll. By the end, one in every hundred people in Great
Britain employed as civilians in the war effort was working for,
or on behalf of, the Group.
- The post war reorganisation saw yet another challenge for
the Rootes brothers; they played a leading part in organising
the motor industry's intensive export drive, and also established
a motor factory in Australia, then rapidly developing as one
of Britain's most valuable markets. By the end of 1946 the plant
was already producing cars and trucks for the Australian market.
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- The early post-war years saw not only the establishment of
new factories abroad but also the setting up of new Rootes trading
organisations in key overseas markets.
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- Among these was Rootes Motors Incorporated, an independent
concessionaire company with headquarters in New York and with
a distributing organisation covering all major American states
to meet the increasing demand in the United States for British
cars. In addition, Rootes Motors (Canada) Ltd., another concessionaire
company, with headquarters in Toronto, was set up in the same
year, 1947. Before 1948 the Group had its own company trading
in Belgium and another concessionaire company was established
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Other companies, in other countries,
followed.
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- The Rootes Group was maintaining factories with more than
seven million square feet of floor space, it had 15 concessionaire
companies and many assembly plants overseas. It exported to more
than 160 countries - compared with a pre-war total of 69.
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- In 1950, as Chairman of the Society of Motor Manufacturers
and Traders, William Rootes played the major role in organising
the first ever British Motor Show in the USA. Held in New York
that show netted over three million dollars' worth of exports.
Trade with the USA began to escalate and in the six years from
1951 to 1956 it netted no less than 169 million dollars' worth.
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- From 1957 to 1962 this figure had increased to over 303 million
dollars.
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- In 1959 William Rootes was created a Baron and became Lord
Rootes of Ramsbury.
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- Despite its size and the scope of its activity, the Rootes
Group was unique among British motor manufacturers in that it
remained a family concern. Lord Rootes' son, the Hon. Geoffrey
Rootes, was Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of the Rootes
manufacturing companies, and the Hon. Brian Rootes, the second
son of Lord Rootes, became Managing Director of Rootes Ltd.,
the Group's merchandising company. Mr Timothy Rootes, the son
of Sir Reginald, was Director in Charge of Sales and Service
of the manufacturing companies, covering more than 1,000 dealers
in the U.K. The second generation followed closely in the footsteps
of the first and was prepared to carry on the family tradition
of high quality manufacture and forceful trading.
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- In 1959 a minority group of Rootes Group workers had begun
to strike at regular intervals, much to the annoyance of the
majority. The workers concerned were from a Rootes subsidiary
company, British Light Steel Pressings Ltd. of Warple Way, Acton,
London. The shop stewards at the Acton factory first learned
how to shout strike when a couple of newly weds at the factory,
who were night shift workers, asked to be transferred to day
shift. This was done and 1,500 workers came out on strike! At
a time when strikes were relatively rare, this one became known
as the 'Honeymoon Strike'.
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- The Rootes family had begun to regret ever taking over the
firm but at the time it had become necessary to increase their
pressing division, to keep up with the demand for their vehicles.
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- Strikes at the Acton factory continued and on 1st September
1961, 1, 000 workers walked out again, bringing the total stoppages
since 1st January 1961 to 82. These were crippling the Rootes
Group and there was nothing they could do about it. The strikes,
which were mainly unofficial and against union advice, had caused
the loss of over 27,000 man hours at the Acton factory, which
in turn had caused the loss of 17,000 man hours at other factories.
This latest strike was called because of 'fears of extensive
short time working and large scale redundancy'. When management
refused to hold talks with the men's leaders (not the unions),
they walked out.
- On Monday, 4th September 1961, the strikers decided to send
delegates to the TUC Annual Conference at Portsmouth, to try
to persuade the TUC to adopt a new national policy in relation
to the car industry. They wanted 52 weeks pay per year for all
workers in the car industry, no matter what the situation. They
also told the TUC that they did not want any interference by
union officials. "We feel this has been allowed to develop
as a local problem because of lack of action from outside and
we think we are in a better position to get a settlement with
our management" a spokesman told Acton Gazette reporters.
He continued, "We don't want the type of assistance the
union officials gave us last time, when we stopped work over
a short time dispute. On the first day we stopped, we were ordered
back to work without anybody considering why we had come out."
The strike delegates achieved nothing at the conference. By 18th
September 1961, the strike had brought the Rootes Group almost
to a standstill with over 6,000 workers from the various Coventry
factories being laid off. Only the non-production line staff
continued to work.
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- Until now, Lord Rootes had refused to comment on the strike,
but on the 26th September 1961, he made his first statement to
the workers concerned: "Return to work by Thursday 28th
September or be sacked." The strikers ignored the threat,
and on Thursday, 28th September 1961, all 1000 workers were sacked.
A recruitment drive was started to replace striking workers.
The strikers objected to this, protesting that the Acton Labour
Exchange was engaged in strike-breaking by sending men down to
the factory for jobs - jobs which, as the committee said: "They
will go back too, once the management accepts to abide by the
rules of the committee." Rootes replied: "We regard
the strikers as ex-employees. We have invited applications for
their jobs. Some strikers have re-applied and we believe others
will follow."
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- The Rootes Group had complete backing from all their other
employees, from the unions, and from the wives of the strikers
(this was given a great deal of publicity). But the sacked strikers
would not listen, stating that "We are determined to see
it through." As the weeks rolled on, 8,000 workers from
other factories were made redundant. Rootes were now having financial
problems, and it was in fact the beginning of the downfall of
the Rootes Empire. Controlled by five men, the strike had caused
irreparable damage to the Rootes Group and its finances. There
was a call for a public enquiry after it was disclosed that the
strike was Communist planned and directed. By 2nd November 1961,
Rootes had found other manufacturers to supply them with the
body panels that should have been produced at the Acton works.
They had also re-engaged 1,750 workers at their Coventry factories
in an attempt to get the production lines rolling once more.
The strikers from what was now labelled "the dead duck strike"
were gradually drifting back, and by 30th November, Acton's work
force was up to 680, 430 of whom had been strikers. By December
21st 1961, only 120 men were still out. After a final meeting,
they decided to go back, but Rootes turned them away, giving
them £40 compensation as a token gesture. Only one of the
strike committee members was re-employed.
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- The dispute may have been over, but it was only the start
of the Rootes Group's problems. Their first priority was to build
up their workforce to enable them to fulfil the outstanding orders.
In November 1962, Rootes announced the total cost of the Acton
strike up until the year ending 31st July. They showed a loss
of £891,088, compared with a profit of nearly £3
million the previous year. This type of loss Rootes could not
afford. They were already heavily committed to a new project,
the Hillman Imp, and the opening of a new plant at Linwood in
Scotland where it was to be produced. This turned out to be the
biggest phase of expansion in the group's history, and losses
at this time were the last thing Rootes wanted.
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- On 30th September 1964, Lord Rootes announced that during
October three representatives of the Chrysler Corporation would
be joining the board of Rootes Motors Ltd. - Irving Minett, Group
Vice-president, International Operations of the Chrysler Corporation,
Lovis B. Warren, a director of Chrysler, and Robert C. Mitchell,
President and Managing Director of Chrysler International. The
move followed the acceptance by the shareholders of Rootes Motors
Ltd. of the Chrysler Corporation's offer to acquire 30 per cent
of the ordinary voting shares in the company and 50 per cent
of the non-voting 'A' shares.
- The first official news of the link came on 4th June when
an agreement was reache
- d in New York by Lord Rootes and Sir Reginald Rootes with
Lynn A. Townsend, President of Chrysler, and George Love, Chairman
of the Chrysler Board, concerning the proposed acquisition of
the shares. Treasury consent to the proposals was given on 29th
July by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who at that time was
Reginald Maudling.
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- In the formal letter to shareholders outlining the offer,
issued on 10th August by S.G. Warburg Co. Ltd. on behalf of Chrysler,
Lord Rootes stated that the Rootes board welcomed the Chrysler
approach: in view of the intense and increasing competition in
the motor industry at home and overseas, it was a logical and
desirable step in the future development of the Rootes Group
to become associated with a strong international organisation
such as Chrysler. On 29th September, Warburgs announced that
they had received the necessary acceptances from the shareholders,
and this was followed by Lord Rootes' statement regarding Chrysler
representation on the board of Rootes Motors Ltd. Although it
has never been confirmed officially, it has always been suspected
that this had all come about because of the Acton strike and
Rootes' inability to recoup the losses involved. These may not
have sounded that onerous at the time, but it must be remembered
that the cost of building vehicles was not much less than the
price they were being sold for (to make them competitive) and
that breaking even on any project was a long, slow process.
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- Lord Rootes kept his workers informed as to what was actually
taking place between Rootes and Chrysler, and when negotiations
finalised the following message was passed to all his employees
were expressing his views on the situation: "You will all
have read about our partnership negotiations with the Chrysler
Corporation which have resulted in this American motor manufacturer,
the third largest in the United States and indeed in the world,
acquiring an interest in Rootes Motors Ltd.
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- "I would therefore like to take this opportunity to
declare that I and all the other members of the Rootes Board
are confident that this association with Chrysler will prove
to be the prelude to a period of great progress for the Rootes
Group.
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- "It does not mean that the Rootes family interests,
financial or otherwise, in Rootes Motors will be diminished in
any way but rather that a real partnership is being established
with Chrysler with a view to bringing advantages to all parties
concerned.
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- "Among these advantages will be an increase in the scope
and activities of the Rootes Group as far as both cars and commercial
vehicles are concerned - and this in turn will offer wider opportunities
to all our employees.
- "You will all be asking exactly how we shall gain from
this partnership with an American company. First of all we shall
obviously benefit from our contact with the Chrysler Organisation
in America with its immense facilities and "know how"
as far as engineering, research, production and other aspects
of our industry are concerned.
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- "In this country, this will help to make us more competitive
and more progressive and I anticipate that this will mean that
the Rootes Group will be able to expand more rapidly.
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- "Abroad, the association is also going to stimulate
our vitally important export sales as we shall be able to benefit
from Chrysler's wide facilities in merchandising and manufacturing
throughout the world. There is no doubt that the present highly
competitive climate in world markets calls for larger motor manufacturing
groups.
- "You will also be wondering exactly how this partnership
will operate. We have, in fact, agreed with Chrysler that the
existing management of the Rootes Group will continue while at
the same time three Chrysler representatives will be appointed
to our main board. In this way, we shall be able to co-ordinate
policy and expansion both in the UK and world markets and work
together to one another's advantage.
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- "As to the future, the Chrysler Corporation with their
broad-minded approach to world trading, have already pledged,
in a letter to the treasury, that they will not initiate any
action to impair either the home or overseas operations or the
management and direction under the Rootes Board of our company
- or our relations with the government, labour, our British shareholders
and the public.
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- "Finally I would like to say that as a frequent visitor
to the United States over many years, I am very well acquainted
with the Chrysler Organisation and its products. I have long
held them in high regard and I am confident that we are all going
to make a good team, and that we shall create a happy and progressive
partnership. I am also confident that everyone in our Group will
contribute towards our efforts to take full advantage of the
opportunities which this association is offering us - and that,
perhaps not immediately but in time, it will bring great benefits
to all of us."
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- One can't help wondering just how much Lord Rootes really
wanted this crucial development. It's hard to imagine that a
man who had dedicated his life to building up an empire from
nothing and against all odds, using methods that a great many
people and manufacturers disapproved of at the time, but followed
suit once they were proved successful, would want to give up
such a large percentage of his business without feeling at least
a little remorse. On 12th December 1964, it was announced that
Lord Rootes of Ramsey, Chairman of the Rootes Group, had died.
Many tributes were paid to this great industrial leader from
people in all walks of life, including representatives from all
his major competitors. Sir Reginald Rootes was elected Chairman
in succession, and Geoffrey Rootes, now the second Lord Rootes,
elder son of the late Lord Rootes, became Deputy Chairman.
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- Many people have said that it was the late Lord Rootes who
dictated company policy and, indeed, who held the Group together.
However, it soon became obvious that not everyone was in agreement
as to the way the company had been run, and on 19th January 1965
it was announced that massive organisation changes were to be
made. Although a great number of employees did not like what
was happening to the company.
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- During the financial year of 1966/7, the Rootes Group had
accumulated enormous losses totalling £10 million. It became
obvious to all that Chrysler would soon take over control of
the Group. This actually took place in January 1967, when they
increased their holding of voting shares to 77.3 per cent. It
was now only a matter of time before the Rootes Group as such
disappeared completely. In March 1967, Sir Reginald Rootes stepped
down from office and Geoffrey (the second Lord Rootes) took his
place as Chairman. Chrysler's Gilbert Hunt was then appointed
Managing Director and given the job of reclaiming what was left
of the once thriving Rootes Empire.
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- This history has been put together from other related websites
and documentation, links to the websites are shown below
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- http://www.andymurkin.net/Hillman/Hillman.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillman
http://www.rootes-chrysler.co.uk/ car-history/history-hilman.html
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