Like many European manufacturers, this week’s article starts in the 19th century with a company making bicycles – Singer were a successful maker of bicycles, motorcycles and then later cars. George Singer started making bicycles in 1875 in Coventry in the UK. Coventry was the heart of bicycle making at the time. With the advent of the internal combustion engine, Singer … [Read more...]
Hillman
William Hillman was first known as a designer of the velocipede, a forerunner to the bicycle and he had been involved with a group of entrepreneurs who were importing them from France. He was born in 1849 and worked for the Coventry Machinist Company, a company that made small machines. In the mid 19th century, Coventry in England was the centre for sewing machine … [Read more...]
Talbot
I have written a post about the Rootes Group and their acquisition of many companies across a 50 year span. One of these companies was the English piece of Talbot, part of Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq. Talbot was originally founded in 1903 in Britain by Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, the 20th Earl of Shrewsbury. He started by importing the French Clement-Bayard cars and selling them as … [Read more...]
Rootes Group
The Rootes Group was a British conglomeration of brands that built up over 50 years. Like GM in the US, Rootes acquired brands that suited different market segments although for many years, the same car was just rebranded with a different level of trim. William Rootes founded the original company in 1913 in south England as a car dealer and became one of the biggest … [Read more...]