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Times Obituary
As chairman and managing director of the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC) from its creation in 1968 from the merger with British Motor Holdings and the Leyland Motor Corporation until its demise in a government reorganisation in 1975, Lord Stokes was faced with the intractable task of bringing some shape and order to a British automotive industry whose problems became a paradigm of Britain’s failing industrial performance in the 1960s and 1970s. Continue reading “Lord Donald Stokes”

After months of tough behind the scenes negotiations the biggest merger in Britain’s industrial history had been concluded successfully. The formation of the British Leyland Motor Corporation was announced on 17 January 1968, as a wave of speculative share buying began hitting the Stock Exchange.

Continue reading “British Leyland”

The story of Rover and Triumph: enter the truck men
www.aronline.co.uk excellent website. Article by Ian Nicholls

As 1961 dawned, Standard-Triumph entered its last weeks as an independent concern. Despite the problems, Standard-Triumph had manufactured 85,926 cars in 1958/59 followed by 138,762 in 1959/1960, but these figures preceded the devastating credit squeeze instigated in Spring 1960.

Standard-Triumph reacted to its falling sales with a plan to introduce a cheaper version of the Herald, the stripped out ‘S’ model. Unfortunately, as well as making the Herald cheaper to manufacture, it also expected its 6000 workforce to take a pay cut in order to pay for the price reduction.

Difficulties and strikes for Standard Triumph
On 12 January 1961 the Shop Stewards at Standard-Triumph International unanimously rejected proposals by the firm to cut wages of the 6000 workers to reduce car prices. The decision was taken at a 90-minute meeting between stewards from all the firm’s Coventry factories and full-time union officials.

A union spokesman said afterwards: ‘The rejection was unanimous. The stewards will now report back to the management.’ At the time, some men worked a three-day week and others four days. The new piece-work rates would be brought in when a five-day week was resumed.

The company, in a statement confirming that proposals for piecework rate adjustments had been made, declared: ‘They are consistent with the company’s efforts to reduce costs in order to meet increasing competition in export markets.’ A management spokesman commented: ‘Production and administrative costs must be cut to the utmost. The time has come when pay increases cannot be passed on to the customer.’

One of the nine union officials who attended the meeting said: ‘It is not sufficient to say there will be such and such a reduction in wages. We want to know how much the new car is going to cost to make and what effect on the ultimate price of the car the pay reductions will have. The firm have just talked in general terms about competition, economic production and what have you.’

Agreement reached on Triumph cost-cutting
Five days later over 150 Shop Stewards of Standard-Triumph agreed to consider some reductions to help the company in an attempt to cut production costs. After the meeting, a leading union official said: ‘The feeling was that if there are anomalies in some piecework rates then procedure exists for ironing them out. But there must be some indication that the firm is also making an effort to reduce managerial costs.’

At long last, on 19 January, the British Government relaxed the credit squeeze, but it had been too late to save Standard-Triumph International’s independence, as Leyland Motors waited in the wings to officially take control of the company.

On 31 January, Sir Henry Spurrier, the Chairman of Leyland Motors, wrote to the company’s stockholders. He told them bluntly that substantial losses were being incurred by Standard-Triumph International which would not be made good by the end of the financial year to August 1961, although later in the year the company expected to be operating at a profit. Bank facilities had been made available to meet the current trading position. Having completed the purchase of Standard-Triumph, the men at Leyland were now looking at the books.

A line in credit extended
On 15 February, Standard-Triumph, now officially part of Leyland Motors, announced theTriumph Herald S model. It was not fitted with either a heater or screen-washer and would sell for £664 2s 6d, which was £38 5s less than the standard model. This equated to a 5.4 per cent price reduction.

The Herald S was the first car to be made in the new £2,500,000 assembly hall, able to produce 4500 cars a week, at the Standard-Triumph factory at Canley. Two days later, Standard-Triumph announced that, as a result of the company’s improved trading position, the majority of its 7000 workers would return to a five-day week by the end of February 1961. Standard-Triumph stated that some sections had already reverted to full time.

On 8 March, Standard-Triumph held another Board meeting. The Board was told that the costings for the ‘Zest’ (TR4) programme had increased by £259,000 to £933,000. The 15 March 1961 has gone down in history as the day the Jaguar E-type was announced – it was also the day Standard-Triumph announced a further price reduction for the Triumph Herald S, down £15 to £648. It was now 7.69 per cent cheaper than its launch price. As it turned out the company was trying to clear out its stock in preparation for an upgraded Herald model.

Quality improvements for Triumph
On 29 March, Standard-Triumph announced that from that date it had started a stringent before sale check up of the cars in the factory. Alick Dick, the Chairman of Standard-Triumph said: ‘I believe that this should be the responsibility of the manufacturer. It is up to us to produce motorcars at the factory, which are right in quality and right in every way before handing them over to the distributors and customers. From now on we will take the onus of responsibility of seeing that small but annoying defects are not passed on to the customer.’

From this point on the news emanating from Canley began to have a more positive note. On 10 April, following hot on the heels of an announcement for orders worth £12,500,000 had been placed for the company’s TR sports car and Triumph Herald saloon at the New York International Motor Show, came the announcement of the new Triumph Herald 1200.

By enlarging the 948cc SC engine to 1147cc Standard-Triumph was able to make the Herald a much more saleable car, lifting it out of its slot as a Mini rival. It retailed at £708 for the Saloon, £736 for the Coupe and £772 for the Convertible. These were soon joined by an Estate version which sold for £799.

Triumph Herald adjustments
However, the Herald 1200 was still a Ford Anglia rival. At the time, the basic Anglia 105E retailed for £606 and the better equipped De Luxe sold for £628. BMC has received much flak for poor cost control in relation to Ford of Britain, but clearly Standard-Triumph was no better.

On 16 May 1961 Standard-Triumph held a Board meeting. Among those attending were the Chairman of Leyland Motors, Sir Henry Spurrier and Donald Stokes, (right) another Director of the company. Born in 1914 in Plymouth, Donald Stokes had joined Leyland in 1930 as an apprentice. War service resulted in Stokes attaining the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. In the summer of 1945, from his posting in Italy, he wrote to Sir Henry Spurrier on his ideas for the future.

The crux of his paper was that Leyland should target export markets and outlined how it should be done. In 1946 Stokes was put in charge of Leyland’s Export Department and in 1953 he was elevated to the Board.

Stokes on Standard-Triumph
In 1968 Stokes gave his opinion of the Standard-Triumph he encountered in 1961. ‘To be honest it was ghastly. The place was badly run and top management was not good.’  At the Board meeting Sir Henry Spurrier said: ‘The company, at the moment, relies entirely on the Herald, and there is nothing to supplement this in the near future.’

Having adopted a hands off approach since its acquisition of Standard-Triumph for several weeks, Leyland Motors now started to assert more control. Two days after the Board meeting it was announced that, in order to integrate the operation of the two companies, Sir Henry Spurrier had become Chairman of Standard-Triumph International, with Alick Dick, the former Chairman, continuing as Managing Director.

‘To be honest it was ghastly. The place was badly run and top management was not good.’ – Donald Stokes on Standard Triumph

Stanley Markland, Sidney Baybutt and Donald Stokes had also joined the board. In addition, Alick Dick and Frank Dixon had been invited to join the board of Leyland Motors.Stanley Markland was the Deputy Managing Director of Leyland Motors and the firm’s production expert.

Born in 1903, he had joined Leyland in 1920, becoming Assistant Chief Engineer in 1942 and Chief Engineer in 1945. In 1946 he joined the Leyland Board and in 1953 became Works Director. He was also Managing Director of Albion Motors Limited, a subsidiary of Leyland. He became Deputy Managing Director of Leyland Motors in March 1961. By 1961 he was heir apparent to Sir Henry Spurrier.

The Leyland men move in
Leyland had now installed its Chief Accountant, sales maestro and production expert on the Standard-Triumph Board to knock the company back into shape and not before time. Standard-Triumph had expected to move into profit in May 1961, but instead it lost £215,000.

With Sir Henry Spurrier, Donald Stokes and Sidney Baybutt having responsibilities elsewhere in the parent company, it fell to Stanley Markland to assess Standard-Triumph’s capabilities and sort the wheat from the chaff. It is difficult to ascertain who was actually in charge of Standard-Triumph at this stage.

With new Chairman Sir Henry Spurrier absent for most of the time, officially it was Managing Director Alick Dick and General Manager Martin Tustin running the show. But with Director Stanley Markland having a hotline to the Leyland Chairman, who was actually dictating forward strategy? According to author Graham Robson, Harry Webster was told that he could develop a new Standard Vanguard replacement.

Project Barb continues apace
Webster’s car was codenamed ‘Barb’ and Giovanni Michelotti was commissioned to style it in April 1961, but this pre-dates the 16 May Board meeting that saw the official hands-on takeover of Standard-Triumph by Messrs Spurrier, Stokes and Markland.

It was during this period that Stanley Markland was shown the discarded ‘Bomb’ prototype by Harry Webster and promptly gave instructions to develop it to production reality as theTriumph Spitfire. On 8 June, Standard-Triumph announced that night shift working had started again at its factories in Coventry – the first time since the slump hit the motor industry in the autumn of 1960.

A Standard-Triumph spokesman also said that production of the firm’s Triumph Herald was being stepped up. At a Standard Triumph Board meeting on 13 July, Harry Webster reported on the progress of Project ‘Barb’ and approval for the tooling expenditure for Project ‘Bomb’ (Spitfire) was given. This indicated that Stanley Markland was indeed calling the shots.

The cracks start to appear
Markland and Dick got on well enough for the Leyland man to take on board the latter’s masterplan for Standard-Triumph. Alick Dick realised that Standard Triumph could not compete with the likes of BMC, Ford and Vauxhall for mass market cars. The future was for Standard Triumph to make upmarket cars.

On 17 August 1961 Leyland’s dissatisfaction with the way things were going at Standard Triumph came to a head. On this day at Standard-Triumph, Sir Henry Spurrier and Stanley Markland used Technical Director Harry Webster’s office to fire most of the Standard-Triumph Board. Spurrier was said to have told Alick Dick that as head man, he had to carry the can.

The media was told of the mass dismissals on 21 August. Sir Henry Spurrier, Chairman and Managing Director of Leyland and Chairman of Standard-Triumph, said in an official statement: ‘Leyland Motors have decided that they must streamline and integrate the Standard-Triumph organization into the parent company at an early date. Mr A.S Dick is to resign from the company, and S. Markland is appointed Managing Director of Standard-Triumph International from today.

‘Further, Leyland Motors have asked Messrs K. Aspland, E. Brimelow, M.J. Tustin, H.S. Weale, M. Whitfield, and L.A Woodall to retire from the Board of Standard-Triumph International, some of whom will be retained with the company in an executive capacity.’

The reorganisation nears completion
Two of the three Directors who remained on the board of Standard-Triumph were Sidney Baybutt and Donald Stokes, who were of course also Directors of Leyland Motors. The following day Standard-Triumph in Liverpool announced that the reorganisation of the company’s Board would not affect building of the new Standard-Triumph car body works at Speke.

Work of extending the existing Hall Engineering factory was going on and the £11,000,000 scheme to provide a million square feet of factory space had reached the stage where the contract for clearing the site had been settled. Meanwhile, the media looked for the ousted Directors. Martin Tustin and Mike Whitfield were allegedly away. Only Alick Dick could be found at home at Leamington Spa.

Dick had been offered the job of head of the Australian division of the business, although it is not clear whether this meant Standard-Triumph or Leyland Motors. It was an offer he declined. Martin Tustin eventually accepted the job of President of Standard-Triumph Motor Co., New York.

Economy measures for Standard-Triumph
On 29 August Sir Henry Spurrier, said that Stanley Markland, the newly-appointed Managing Director of Standard-Triumph, was to introduce immediate economy measures. These were designed greatly to reduce all overhead expenditure and generally to run the organization on lines similar to those of the parent company.

‘The practical putting into effect of these necessary economies must result in a severe cutting down of numbers of executives and other staff employed, in addition to drastic reductions in day-to-day non-productive expenditure,’ Sir Henry’s statement said.

‘Concurrently, active work is proceeding on the development of new products, and we think it desirable to state categorically that it is the intention of the company to stay prominently in the motor car business. New models will be announced in due course and will become available as speedily as they can be. Finally, I would remind our friends of Leyland’s world-wide reputation for giving the highest quality and greatest value in all its products. It is our intention to maintain this standard throughout the entire group.’

Expected improvements never materialise
The statement said it had been expected that conditions in the motor industry would improve rapidly in the spring of 1961. ‘Unfortunately, losses continued to be made during these months and it became clear … that it was essential to bring in drastic economies without delay in order to meet effectively the intense competition now prevalent in the motor industry throughout the world.

‘The Leyland Board, recognizing its responsibility to Leyland shareholders, felt that this far-reaching exercise at STI should be borne entirely by the top Leyland executives and that they should have a clear field in which to put their plans into practical effect.

‘This requirement was discussed with, and made clear to, all members of the original STI Board, who readily appreciated Leyland’s point of view and subsequently tendered their resignations.’

Sackings as well as redundancies
It was also reported that around two hundred executives and staff of Standard-Triumph were to be sacked. The men who would go were in the £40 to £60 a week pay bracket .

One of the executives whose job was in danger said: ‘If one man on the shop floor was fired there would be a strike because they are organized. About 200 of us will go and nothing will happen.’

On 31 August, Stanley Markland met with officials of the Coventry district of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions. Markland was able to assure them of a bright future for Standard-Triumph.

Triumph TR4 launched
Then the next day ‘Zest’ was announced as the TR4 sports car. The new Michelotti-styled body featured an enlarged tractor engine of 2138cc. The new more civilised TR4 could now reach 110mph. Some 40,253 would be manufactured up to 1965.

With the authority of the parent company behind him Stanley Markland began to cut costs. On 4 September, 700 workers at the Hemel Hempstead New Town factory of Alford and Aldred, a Standard-Triumph subsidiary, began a four-day week. At Standard-Triumph International Limited, 2500 production workers employed on the Triumph Herald car dropped from a five-day week to three days.

The bulk of the men would be idle on Mondays and Fridays, the short time working being arranged to enable them to claim Unemployment Benefit. The reduced hours were necessary because of the effect on the industry of an increase in Purchase Tax and a general credit squeeze, which were expected to reduce sales in the coming months. One hundred employees of Beans Industries Limited – another Standard-Triumph subsidiary at Coseley, Staffordshire – had been given a week’s notice, it was announced.

Details emerge of Coseley closure
The company stated that it intended to close the works within the next few months and to transfer the equipment and machinery to its second factory at Tipton. It also hoped to transfer ‘most of the employees’ from Coseley, but the possibility of redundancy could not be ruled out.

Leyland had started to comb through the Standard-Triumph executives, seeing who it could keep, reassign at a lower grade, or fire. This led to the discovery of perhaps Standard-Triumph’s most outstanding employee, Keith Hopkins. Born in 1930, this son of a Coventry car worker went to Oxford University and the Sorbonne in Paris where he learned to speak French fluently.

Keith Hopkins groomed for greatness
He was taken on by the Publicity Department of the Standard Motor Company partly because Alick Dick wanted a French speaker to aid continental sales. After the 17 August dismissal of the STI Board, Hopkins wasted no time in getting another job as Press Officer for Coventry City Council before the axe inevitably fell on his own position.

Keith Hopkins found himself summoned to justify his position at STI before Donald Stokes. With the security of his new job offer, Hopkins spoke his mind, impressed Stokes and was promoted to run Standard-Triumph publicity from the Leyland headquarters in Berkeley Square House in London.

It was the start of a professional relationship between Stokes and Hopkins that lasted until 1995* and would prove crucial in the years to come.

The Leyland annexation of Standard-Triumph continues
On 11 September, more Leyland men were drafted into Standard-Triumph. Walter West and Mr C. Robertson were appointed Executive Chairman and Managing Director respectively of Beans Industries. Walter West was Deputy Chairman of Leyland Motors, Chairman of Scammell Lorries, and Managing Director of West Yorkshire Foundries. Robertson was Director and General Manager of West Yorkshire Foundries.

Also that September the Land Rover Series IIa was announced. This revised model featured a 2286cc diesel engine which shared some of the production facilities with the similarly-sized petrol engine. Then, on 2 October, Standard-Triumph announced price cuts ranging from £18 to £29 on the Herald range.

Parent company Leyland Motors said the cuts were ‘the first benefits of the amalgamation.’ The next month Standard-Triumph approved the styling of Project Barb and Pressed Steel was asked to make drawings and tool the body. Leyland had originally wanted a 1.6 litre version, and a solitary prototype was built in 1962, but it was underpowered and fell by the wayside.

Stokes pushes for price reductions
Leyland in the form of sales expert Donald Stokes also pushed for cost reduction, at one stage harbouring the hope that Project Barb could be sold for as little as £900, although in reality everybody thought a sub-£1000 price tag was unobtainable. Even so Pressed Steel was persuaded to reduce its prices by 8.5 per cent

Apart from the seemingly obligatory strikes, Rover had been absent from the headlines in 1961. On 22 November, the company announced its financial results. In a difficult year for the motor industry, at the time 1000 of their car assembly workers in the Midlands were on a four-day week, the Rover company’s sales were marginally higher than for the previous 12 months.

These sales, said Spencer Wilks, the Chairman, in his annual report, would have been appreciably better had it not been for the labour troubles experienced by some of their suppliers during the year. Loss of output due to stoppages also contributed to the higher costs which resulted in a 19 per cent drop in earnings before tax. In common with the rest of the motor industry Rover was engaged on a long-term expansion programme. This would require £10,500,000 of which £3,800,000 was committed for the current year. Of net current assets totalling about £9m, over £6m was liquid.

Work starts on new Rover factory
The following day officials of the Rover Car Company saw the foundation stone laid of a £2,500,000 factory at Pengam Moor, Cardiff. The hope was that by 1963 about 2,000 people would be employed there. The spare parts side of the firm would be transferred to Pengam in its entirety.

Pengam was also earmarked to produce transmissions for the Rover range. Rover thought they had grounds for optimism. The Vice-Chairman, George Farmer, said at the luncheon after the ceremony: ‘We achieved an all-time record output in the last financial year up to the end of July and we look forward to the future with every confidence.’

The factory was more than welcome to Wales, which had long cried out for greater diversification of industry. It had arrived there in response to ‘the amiable arm twisting’ of the Board of Trade, as William Martin-Hurst, Deputy Managing Director of Rover, put it ‘This left us no alternative but to expand our industries, in places which we certainly would not have chosen and which at the time not infrequently appeared unattractive to us.’

Export staff relieved of duties
Meanwhile, back at Standard-Triumph, it was revealed in the press that STI had fired 26 export staff including 47-year-old James Dick, brother of the deposed Alick.

The sacked staff said they had been told that because of ‘financial difficulties’ the company could not consider paying general compensation for the loss of their jobs.

Now the group decided to kill off Standard-Triumph Export Sales Limited, the subsidiary which handled export sales to customers who collected their cars in Britain. The work, involving £500,000 worth of cars each year, would be done by another Standard-Triumph depot .

Another week, another cull
James Dick, Manager of the subsidiary in Headfort Place, Westminster, was given two weeks notice. So had seven office staff and 18 fitters and mechanics. One of Mr Dick’s staff said: ‘We feel the firm should at least pay compensation. Some of the sacked men have been with the company thirty years.’ On 28 December Leyland Motors Group announced a reallocation of duties at Board level.

Sir Henry Spurrier, Chairman and Managing Director, would take over all those sections of the organization – including direction of the Leyland headquarters factories, production, purchasing, material control and quality control – previously undertaken by Stanley Markland, in his capacity of Works Director.

Stanley Markland, recently appointed Managing Director of Standard-Triumph International Limited, would be enabled to give practically his whole-time attention to problems involved in the reorganization of the Standard-Triumph group. He would continue as Managing Director of Albion Motors Limited.

The Managing Director is out…
The Board of Standard-Triumph International Limited announced that Frank Dixon, Deputy Managing Director, was expanding his business activities by mutual agreement, so the Board had agreed to release him from his position as Deputy Managing Director to enable him to devote more time to activities outside the Standard-Triumph group.

Frank Dixon would, however, spend the greater part of his time within the group supervising and coordinating the expansion of the group’s body building activities at Speke, Liverpool, and would take up the appointment of Executive Chairman of Standard-Triumph (Liverpool) Limited, from which office Sir Henry Spurrier would retire. Frank Dixon would continue as Chairman of the two other companies in the body division of the group, Auto Body Dies Limited and Technical Woodwork Company Limited. He would retain his seat on the board of Standard-Triumph International Limited.

Stanley Markland had reduced capital spending, shut down the Competitions Department and sold off a lot of company owned and run cars. The Cessna light aircraft was sold to parent company Leyland while the new car plant at Speke had been put on hold. In the meantime, build quality on the Triumph Herald had been improved. So ended a dramatic year for Standard-Triumph. Alick Dick and his Board had looked long and hard for a partner, but paid for success with their jobs.

History : The Rover-Triumph story – Part Two : 1960 – expanding horizons

www.aronline.co.uk excellent website. Article by Ian Nicholls

Speke plans take shape for Standard-Triumph
9 February 1960, Standard-Triumph International announced that the company was to spend £11 million building a new plant on Merseyside. The scheme, part of an £18 million expansion funded by the windfall from the sale of the company’s tractor assets, embraced a three-year plan under which 4500 would be employed at Speke.

Government policy was normally strongly opposed to further industrial development in the industrial Midlands, where the lowest level of unemployment in Britain was combined with a high degree of industrial congestion. The Board of Trade granted industrial development certificates to firms there only when the applicants could prove that an extension was wanted for an integrated industrial process that could not be located away from existing plant.

Therefore firms like Standard-Triumph were directed to areas like Wales, Scotland and Merseyside, where unemployment was seen as high in this era of post war optimism. There were estimated to be 25,000 unemployed on Merseyside at the time.

New factory growth through mergers
This was followed on 22 February by the news that Standard-Triumph offer, worth over £500,000 for the Ordinary share capital of Alforder Newton, had been accepted by all the Ordinary shareholders.

Then, on 2 March, the Rover Car Company confirmed that they were negotiating for a site in South Wales for the building of a new factory.

A spokesman for the firm said:
 ‘We now confirm that we are negotiating for a site in Cardiff, and until these negotiations are concluded we regret we have nothing to say.’ All was not revealed until 12 May.

Amid a climate of niggling industrial disputes, Mulliners Limited, the Standard-Triumph subsidiary, dismissed the entire production force of 120 workers at its Coventry plant on 14 March. The men said they received an hour’s notice and a week’s pay.
 Mulliners Limited had no statement on the dismissals, but a spokesman for the parent company, Standard-Triumph International, said:
 ‘A contract between Mulliners and us for the supply of Vanguard car bodies has been ended. The future of the Mulliners’ plant has yet to be considered.’

Niggling industrial disputes rumble on
The media was told that the termination would not affect the current or future production of Vanguard cars. In the afternoon trade union officials met representatives of Mulliners at the offices of Coventry Engineering Employers’ Association and were told that the firm’s decision was irrevocable. A request that the dismissed men be reinstated was refused.

Maintenance and stores men continued working. 
Charles Gallagher, Coventry Area Organiser of the National Union of Vehicle Builders, which had 74 men among those dismissed, said: 
’The dismissals came like a bolt out of the blue. This is a wildcat lockout. There had been no hint of sackings at all.’

The plant, it was reported, had not been operating economically since it was taken over in July 1958. At that time it was intended to build up a labour force of 1000, but since then there had been long and uneasy negotiations over pay rates, which, it was thought, had delayed efforts to get the factory fully operational. Union leaders were outraged at the sackings and resolved to reverse the decision.

Unions, 1 Management, 0
The following day the management made a partial climbdown. An offer of re-employment for 80 of the 120 men summarily dismissed by Mulliners was accepted by the unions concerned. Standard-Triumph offered to absorb the men on the production of Triumph Heralds at its Canley factory.

The offer came at a time when the 11,000 men at Canley had refused to handle Vanguard car bodies on which the dismissed men had been employed and were threatening a complete ban on overtime on all models.

On 23 March Standard-Triumph reached an agreement with the unions on a shorter working week. In return for an increased track speed to maintain existing production rates, the working week was reduced from 42.5 hours to 40.75 hours.

Speke inaugurated
On the last day of March 1960 Standard-Triumph International’s scheme for a new 104 acre car plant at Speke was inaugurated. Having acquired control of an existing engineering plant there – Hall Engineering, where body parts for the Triumph Herald were being made, the company already had one foot in the door.

Managing Director Alick Dick, who had flown in from Canley by helicopter, climbed into the driving seat of a caterpillar tractor which was coupled to an earth-scraping machine. He drove the whole device round the field where the new plant was to be built with considerable dexterity and cut the first sod.

With him on the machine was Alderman John Braddock, leader of Liverpool City Council, who had campaigned to attract industry to Merseyside. Alderman Braddock aptly remarked later that this was ‘a day of triumph for Merseyside.’ ‘Liverpool looked like becoming a boom town,’ he said happily. It would be some time before Speke No.2 came on stream.

New names join Standard-Triumph
Then, on 4 April, Standard-Triumph announced some appointments. Frank Dixon joined the main board. Following the reorganization of the group in 1959 and its continuing development, two new, wholly-owned subsidiary companies had been formed:-

• Standard-Triumph (Liverpool) Limited, which would be the manufacturing subsidiary at Speke, Liverpool, with the following Directors: Alick Dick, Executive Chairman; Frank Dixon, Managing Director; Martin Tustin; and Les Woodall.

The following changes were also made to the boards of certain subsidiary companies in the Standard-Triumph group:- 
Standard-Triumph Sales Limited and Triumph Motor Co. (1945) Limited – Alick Dick relinquished his seat on these boards and was succeeded as Executive Chairman of each company by Mike Whitfield.

Standard Motor Company Limited – Martin Tustin relinquished his seat on the board; Cliff Swindle was appointed Works Director. 
Standard-Triumph Group Services Limited – Ken Aspland, Harold Weale, Harry Webster, and Mike Whitfield relinquished their seats on the board and the following new appointments were made: John Carpenter, Executive Director; Walter Boardman, Director and Group Financial Accountant; F.J. Leaver, Director and Group Cost Accountant. 
Alforder Newton Limited – Ken Aspland and SG Seymour joined the board.

Mulliners Limited – E. B. Montesole retired and was succeeded as Chairman by Colonel C. White, who continued as Managing Director. Harold Weale joined the board. 
Forward Radiator Company Limited – Leonard Woodall was appointed Executive Chairman. Frank Dixon was the Managing Director of Hall Engineering Limited. Then, on 5 May, Trevor Knox joined the Board of Standard-Triumph Sales Limited.

With manufacturing assets at Hemel Hempstead, Coventry and Merseyside, Standard-Triumph decided to splash the cash and spent £32,000 buying a Cessna light aircraft for travel between its factories.

Rover announces factory in Wales
On 12 May, the Rover Car Company announced its plans for a new works to be sited at Cardiff’s old airport, Pengam Moor.
 Three months of speculation were ended by George Farmer, Joint Managing Director of the company, when at a lunch at Cardiff he said that negotiations had been concluded with the city authorities for the purchase of the airport site.

He said that the first stage of development there would be to provide as quickly as possible production facilities to supplement existing Rover capacity at Birmingham, which was inadequate.

George Farmer said that the Board of Trade had shown their full approval by granting adequate industrial development certificates. He thanked the Lord Mayor, Alderman Mrs Helena Evans, and the City Council for their
 ‘confidence in the company, shown particularly by their undertaking very substantial obligations in connection with preparing the site.’

His comments referred to the financial help given by Cardiff of an estimated £1,500,000 to cover the cost of extra piling in preparing the site. Congestion at the Rover plant at Solihull had resulted in a delay of nine months in the P6 project while the company looked at expanding its production capacity.

Government intervention shapes expansion
The Conservative Government of Harold Macmillan was engaged in a policy of trying to push industry into expanding in areas of high unemployment and social deprivation.

Rover refused point blank to move its car production out of Solihull, but it did concede on moving component production elsewhere as part of a deal that enabled them to build what became known as North Block at Solihull to build the P6.

Triumph model plans take shape
On 18 July Standard-Triumph held a board meeting. Projects ‘Zest’ (above) and ‘Zoom’ were discussed. The minutes stated; ‘It was resolved that Zest be called the ‘Triumph Dolomite’ and that Zoom be called the ‘Triumph Vitesse’.’

‘The Secretary reported that the trademark ‘Dolomite’ was registered in the name of the Standard Motor Company Limited but that it would not be possible to register the word ‘Vitesse’ as a Trade Mark.’

‘Zest’ was the codename for the forthcoming Triumph TR4, while the ‘Zoom’ was meant to be a up-scale sports car with a bespoke engine.

Tough times were returning
By September 1960 there were fears among thousands of car workers and union officials that harder times were returning. 
The slowing pace of car exports to the United States in recent months, coupled with a toughening in home market sales, had brought uneasiness to the industry. It was not helped by one of the British Government’s periodic credit squeezes, announced in its Spring 1960 budget.

On 19 September Standard-Triumph International officially announced that short-time working was to be introduced in the near future at their Coventry factories because of the credit squeeze. At the same time Mulliners Limited said that a cut in its labour force was being considered. Both companies gave as their reasons the seasonal decline in orders 
’aggravated by the Government’s financial policy.’

A Standard-Triumph official said that the introduction of short time at Coventry would enable the company to retain their labour force. Mulliners were chiefly concerned with the production of TR3 sports car bodies. 
George Turnbull, then Standard-Triumph’s Divisional Manager, Car Production was of the opinion that the regular credit squeezes by central Government were hugely damaging to the British motor industry.

The Government wasn’t helping
Interviewed in the 1980s, George Turnbull recalled: ‘In those days it was just a little fiscal regulator. If the economy was overheated, put some more purchase tax on motor cars.

‘The British motor industry was the main employer of labour; it was the biggest manufacturing industry by a mile and the Government treated it with derision. There’s no other word for it.’ – George Turnbull

‘The Government was totally oblivious and if I was ever going to apportion blame for the parlous state that the British motor industry got into, you have got to put it at the door of the Government. I don’t care which complexion or which colour.

‘The reality is that they didn’t handle the industry in a sensitive way. It was the main primer for so many service industries; it was the main employer of labour; it was the biggest manufacturing industry by a mile and they treated it with derision. There’s no other word for it.

‘From one day from virtually full employment, I had got to sack 3000 men, which I did with great reluctance. It drove more and more men into militant unions for protection.’

Triumph model plans adjusted
Standard-Triumph held another Board meeting on 19 September. The Board decided thatTriumph Zebu project be discontinued forthwith and that, consequent upon this resolution, a ‘live axle’ be maintained for ‘Zest’ (TR4).

‘Zebu’ had started life with a backward slanting rear window, but that was swiftly abandoned when Standard learned that Ford were working on such a feature for its 105E Anglia saloon. Next came the idea of upscaling the Herald design, before Giovanni Michelotti was brought in to do a complete restyle.

Triumph Zebu
This was still not enough, and with tooling estimates of £800,000 from Pressed Steel, lower sales forecasts and Standard-Triumph in serious financial trouble due to the credit squeeze, the Board pulled the plug on ‘Zebu.’ The problem for Standard-Triumph was that the ageing Standard Vanguard still needed replacing and there was nothing in the pipeline.

The Board approved the four-door, six-cylinder version of the Triumph Herald, which became the Vitesse, and the finance for a running prototype of ‘Bomb’, which became the Triumph Spitfire. The Board was told that the ‘Zest’ (TR4) and ‘Zoom’ programmes would cost £676,000.

As a stopgap the Vanguard Six had been introduced in the autumn of 1960 featuring a new overhead valve 1998 cc straight six engine known as the 20S.

Redundancies in the pipeline
Two days later it was revealed that extensive short-time working was to be operated and some redundancy was likely at the Coventry factories of Standard-Triumph as a result of the credit squeeze. 
Production workers, already on a four-day week, faced a further reduction and talks were being sought with the management by unions. The nightshift had been ended and workers had been switched to day shifts.

The National Association of Clerical and Supervisory Staffs, fearing redundancy, sent a telegram to the Chancellor of the Exchequer stating:
 ‘We believe that the present difficulties of the motor industry are the direct result of the credit squeeze and we therefore urge immediate easing of the financial restrictions on the motor industry.’

At Mulliners, Ministry of Labour officials set up an advisory office.
 Mulliners had said that, because of the credit squeeze on hire purchase, at least 700 vehicle builders would be declared redundant later in the month.
The Ministry men were advising workers of all the other jobs available in the Midlands. 
Standard-Triumph also announced that Frank Dixon had been appointed Deputy Managing Director of Standard-Triumph International.

Short-time working introduced at Triumph
On 22 September Standard-Triumph stated that some workers at its Coventry factories were to begin a 19-hour week.
 A spokesman for the firm said that less than 25 per cent of the 8000 workers at the factories were ‘in the early stage’ to work a two and a half-day week. The remainder, he said, would work longer hours than this.

The company spokesman added: 
’To avoid redundancy the company has decided upon short-time working. The work available varies from department to department as do also the hours of work. Details of the work available are under discussion between the company and the workers’ representatives. It will be some days before a complete picture will be available.’

Standard-Triumph, which produced about 5000 cars a week, was understood to have cut production of the Vanguard range by half because of the credit squeeze and falling American sales. A 30 per cent cut had been made in the Triumph Herald and Triumph sports car output.
 The average wage of manual workers at the firm was £23 a week. The cut in hours was expected to reduce the weekly pay packets to about £11 to £12.

A deal struck in the USA, new factory in Belgium
While all this was going on, sometime during September 1960 American Motors of Detroit offered to sell Standard-Triumph CKD kits of body components for its forthcoming Rambler American model. The idea was that Standard-Triumph would transplant its own power train into the Rambler American body to create a cheap and quick replacement for the Vanguard.

While Standard-Triumph was putting workers on short time in the UK, in Belgium it was opening a new factory at Malines. On 4 October Standard-Triumph International marked the opening by the British Ambassador, Sir John Nicholls, with an immediate reduction in the Belgian price of the Triumph Herald.

Triumph Herald
Alick Dick, the Managing Director, announced that the benefits of manufacturing inside the Common Market, later known as the European Union, had made possible an important cut of £49 (7000 Belgian francs) to £496 10s. 
’We are determined to keep pace with the demands of the continental markets. My company in common, I believe, with the rest of the United Kingdom motor industry, looks upon the division of Europe economically as little short of a catastrophe, but we cannot afford to wait for those whose responsibility it is to resolve the undoubted problems which still exist in bringing them together, and we have therefore launched this project,’ he said.

Benefits of European production
It was reported that Standard Triumph saved 14 per cent on tariff costs by assembly in Belgium rather than importing cars completed in the United Kingdom.
The new factory, built in little more than four and a half months, was planned to initially turn out cars at the rate of 2500 a year, and it was hoped to raise this progressively up to 10,000 a year.

‘We are determined to keep pace with the demands of the continental markets. My company in common, I believe, with the rest of the UK motor industry, looks upon the division of Europe economically as little short of a catastrophe.’ – Alick Dick

Production would concentrate on the three-model Triumph Herald range and the Triumph TR3, and at first be devoted to the Belgian market, but, with the prospect of continuing reductions in internal tariffs among the Common Market countries, exports to the other countries of the six members would plainly follow.

The problem with describing the British motor industry in the period before the UK joined the European Economic Community in 1973, is that attitudes were very much UK-centric. It was all well and good for politicians and analysts to exhort the British motor industry to export, but they did not have to deal with trade tariffs that made British made vehicles price uncompetitive in EEC countries. Trade tariffs effectively kept Britain out of the larger EEC car market, but also kept cars from France, West Germany and Italy out of Britain in large volume.

Short-time working and redundancies
A week later Rover revealed that, in the wake of the credit squeeze, they were operating a four-day week. Then, on 18 October, it was reported that nearly 60 men employed at the Speke No.1 factory, Liverpool, of Standard-Triumph International had been declared redundant. It was hoped the men would be re-employed later.

During October Alick Dick and Martin Tustin flew to Detroit to discuss a deal between Standard-Triumph and American Motors over body supplies.

Rover held a Board meeting on 24 October where it was agreed to put the P6 project into production. The next day Rover revealed its financial results. Group profit rose to £2,764,973, from £1,902,046, after depreciation of £1,150,864 (£636,011). Tax required £1,589,404 (£905,209).

Rover’s movers and shakers
In November Rover announced some appointments. Mr E.G. Commander retired from the Board of Rover due to ill-health.
 It was proposed that George Farmer be appointed Executive Vice-Chairman after the Annual General Meeting in December 1960.

Maurice Wilks was to be sole Managing Director, and William Martin-Hurst, then Executive Director (Production) was appointed as Deputy Managing Director. A.B. Smith was appointed to the Board as Supplies Director.
It was intended to appoint Geoffrey Lloyd Dixon as a Director after the Annual General Meeting.

Christopher J. Peyton, who would be joining the company in the near future, was to be appointed Executive Director (Finance).
 Mr W.J. Robinson was appointed Executive Director (Production-Solihull).
 Arthur Herbert, then in charge of export, had been appointed an Executive Director. 
Mr M.W.B. Knight had been appointed Executive Director (Industrial Relations and Welfare).

Bad news at Standard-Triumph
Meanwhile, over at Standard-Triumph, things went from bad to worse. On 8 November, the company announced that 1700 hourly paid employees at its Coventry factories were to be declared redundant. 
The company intended to begin a three-day week for its remaining 6300 manual workers. Dismissals were also to take place among the company’s 1400 staff employees.

News of the redundancies was broken to union officials at a meeting at the Coventry and District Engineering Employers’ Association. A statement by the company said the moves were being made 
’in view of the general situation in the motor industry.’

The number of men affected was about equal, the firm said, to the increase in its labour force during the past 12 months. 
’Discussions will be taking place during the next two weeks with the trade union representatives in accordance with an agreed procedure for dealing with such questions,’ 
the statement concluded.

The workforce is slashed
In some sections at Standard-Triumph the labour force was to be cut by as much as half. The largest number of men to be dismissed – 916 – was on the assembly lines at the company’s main factory at Canley. In the machine shop at the same works there would be 260 dismissals. 
The 1700 men affected were to be given a week’s notice or a week’s pay in lieu on 22 November.

This, in turn, was followed two days later by the news that a further 200 staff, clerks, draughtsmen, and scientific workers were to be dismissed by Standard-Triumph in the forthcoming week, and more in the near future.

Things were looking bleak for Standard-Triumph. It was haemorrhaging cash at an alarming rate on its expansion plans whilst it could not sell its existing output due to a collapse in the UK car market. Then salvation arrived in the form of a Lancashire-based commercial vehicle manufacturer.

Leyland moves to swoop in on Triumph
On 14 November 1960 Sir Henry Spurrier, the Chairman of Leyland Motors, telephoned Alick Dick to discuss a possible takeover of the Coventry company. Leyland, with assets of over £52 million, made heavy commercial and passenger motor vehicles, trolley buses, fire engines and heavy oil engines. Leyland was the largest heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer in the UK at the time.

Since 1945 Leyland had targeted export markets, many in the Third World, as a way of bolstering sales and production. Not only had this been profitable, it had enabled Leyland to avoid the worst ravages of a domestic credit squeeze. Alick Dick had craved a partner in order to expand Standard-Triumph, now, as if by magic, it had appeared just in the nick of time.

On 16 November 1960 Sir Henry Spurrier travelled to Coventry to put his offer on the table. Then, on 28 November, Lord Tedder, having reached the age of 70, decided not to seek re-election to the Board at the Annual General meeting at Coventry, to be held on 21 December. Lord Tedder had, however, accepted an invitation to become President of the company. Alick Dick, Managing Director, would be elected Chairman of the Board. Quite clearly Lord Tedder knew that changes were afoot.

The story of Rover and Triumph: a warning shot fired…
The annual report was Lord Tedder’s last job as Chairman. 
In it he warned the Government that the car industry might not be able to keep up exports unless restrictions on hire purchase were eased at home. Lord Tedder said competition in all export markets was becoming more intense, and added:
’Unless we can work from a stable and profitable home base, it will become increasingly difficult to maintain or expand our foothold in overseas markets.’

In the year which ended August 1960, Standard-Triumph International produced 139,032 cars, and made a profit of £2,104,000. The period in the report did not cover Standard-Triumph’s more recent woes. News of the proposed merger between the ailing Standard-Triumph International and the successful commercial vehicle maker Leyland Motors seeped out on 5 December.

Leyland’s proposal was for it to acquire the whole of the ordinary capital of Standard-Triumph International on the basis of two ordinary stock units of £1 each in Leyland for 15 ordinary stock units of 5s. each in Standard-Triumph International. Lord Tedder, Chairman of Standard- Triumph International , said that the Standard-Triumph Directors considered that the proposed terms of the amalgamation with Leyland – ‘an entirely British concern’ – were fair.

Leyland becomes a player, while the lights go out…
They recommended their acceptance by all Standard-Triumph International ordinary stockholders and intended to do so in respect of their own holdings. Two days later it was announced that Standard-Triumph International was closing down one of their subsidiary body building factories in Birmingham. The factory, that of Mulliners Limited employed about 800 workers, having recently laid off some 750 as redundant because of a shortage of orders.

Trade union officials were told of the decision to stop production at the factory at a conference. A Mulliners official said: 
’We have been informed by Standard-Triumph International that it is necessary to streamline the company’s factories in order to make the most economical use of the production facilities available. It has therefore been decided to move the existing Mulliners products to other Midlands factories within the group.’

While this had all been going on, Leyland had sent Sidney Baybutt, the company’s Chief Accountant, to examine Standard-Triumph’s books. So ended 1960 and Standard-Triumph’s independence.