THE A.E.C. AND DAIMLER AMALGAMATION.
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The Renewal of an Old Relationship Which Will Bring Many Advantages in the Marketing of the Products and Will Benefit Their Purchasers.
TIIE scheme of an important amalgamation was announced at a luncheon at the Savoy Hotel, London, on Friday last by Sir Edward Manville, vicechairman of the Birmingham Small Arms, Ltd. The forces to be combined are the Associated Equipment Co., Ltd., and the commercial-vehicle department of the Daimler Co., Ltd., a new company, known as the Associated Daimler Co., Ltd., being formed for the purpose. Until all the legal requirements are satisfied and the formalities are concluded, the new company is being referred to as being in the proprietorship of the two originating companies.
There has always been a relationship between the two concerns, partly of a businesslike nature and partly sympathetic. It will be remembered that there was a strong likeness between the A.E.C. chassis and the Daimler chassis, and that Colonel Frank Searle went from the Associated Equipment Co., Ltd. to the Daimler Co., Ltd., to establish its commerciallvehicle department, as he himself related in our Coming-ofAge Number (March 16th, 1926). The L.G.O.C. purchased 350 of the first batch of chassis turned out at Coventry. In the course of the rearrangement of the maintenance contract in respect of those vehicles, the Daimler Co. were appointed sole selling agents for any vehicles turned out by the Walthamstow factory in excess of the requirements of the L.G.O.C. Under the agreement Daimler engines were employed on A.E.C. chassis. The contracts for war-service vehicles, however, specified the Tylor engine, and since the war the Associated Equipment Co. have made their own engines. A more recent evidence of mutual assistance (not involving any relationship, however) is the use of Daimler six-cylinder engines in the batch of all-weather coach chassis recently constructed at Chiswick for the tour department of the L.G.O.C.
The Associated Equipment Co., Ltd., was founded towards the close of the year 1909, being established as an equipment manufacturing concern associated with the London General Omnibus Co., Ltd.— u18
hence its title. Both companies were acquired by the Underground group of railways, .and in recent years the major part of the shares of the A.E.C. have belonged to the L.G.O.C. It has built the five types of bus used by the L.G.O.C.—the X, B, K, S and NS types— and its surplus energies have been devoted to manufacturing for the open market. On the conclusion of the contract for 1,800 NS buses, however, the A.E.C. ceased to do more than manufacture components for the L.G.O.C., which has ever since constructed its chassis at Chiswick.
The relationship with the L.G.O.C. has been of enormous benefit to the A.E.C., providing it with a volume of experience otherwise almost unobtainable, but the motor trade has not been slow to urge that a concern with a market for its wares in a quarter where it had no competition should not sell chassis in the open market, but such an argument was really never altogether tenable. The whole of the manufacturers of commercial motor vehicles have customers who, having made a first choice of a make, have given their repeat orders to the same factory in order to simplify maintenance. However, this gibe will no longer be used as a weapon, for the new company will be entirely free of all direct connection with the L.G.O.C., and the association with the Daimler Co., dropped since about 1915, will be renewed. There will be distinct advantages which will be observable in the chassis and vehicles produced, for the facilities for experiment and research will at once be extended, and the pooling of knowledge will benefit the drawing office and serve to improve the quality of the productions.
The design of the vehicles to be manufactured and their range being decided upon, the present factory at Walthamstow, and later the new factory now being erected at Southall, to be ready for occupation at the close of this year, and the Daimler factory at Coventry, will co-operate for the production of the chassis units. The final assembly will be carried out at Walthamstow and later on at Southall, and, as the Asso
elated Daimler Co., Ltd., will commence its operations on Thursday next, July 1st, from that date it will be responsible for securing contracts and for the distribution of the finished products.
The Southall factory will have an area of a quarter of a million square feet and, with the Daimler factories assisting, a very large weekly output will be maintained. It is not proposed at present to touch the very Mhtest type of commercial motor; but, apart therefrom, the present range of chassis, both for passenger work and goods carrying, will be extended, and by the close of the year 1927 the six-cylinder coach which is projected will be ready. for marketing after a strenuous period of testing. It is intended that the product8 shall be all-British to the fullest extent of the term,
that high quality and excellent value and good service to the purchaser shall be definite aims, whilst, of course, the unique experience of the L.G.O.C. in operating the largest bus service in the world will be available both to the technical staff and the sales staff.
The directors of the Associated Daimler Co., Ltd., are the Right Hon. the Lord Ashfield, P.C., chairman; Sir Edward Manville, vice-chairman; and Sti Ernest Clarke, Mr. Percy Martin, Mr. R. A. Rotherham and Mr. Henry Vernet. Mr. Norman A. Hardie, now joint manager of the Associated Equipment Co., Ltd., has been appointed general manager of the Associated Daimler Co., Ltd., and Mr. G W. Duncan is appointed secretary. The registered offices will for the time being be located at the A.E.C. works at Waltharnstow.