Rootes Pressings (Scotland)
Note: This is associated with Rootes Motors
of Linwood, Paisley.
1963 Rootes introduced the Hillman Imp, a compact rear-engined saloon with an innovative all-aluminium engine. It was intended to be a response from Rootes to rival BMC's popular Mini, and a massive new factory in Linwood was built for its assembly. The move to Linwood was forced upon the company by the British government, which had introduced the principle of "Industrial Development Certificates" (IDCs). By their use, it was intended to concentrate new factory building in depressed areas of Britain. Thus, Rootes were not allowed to expand their existing Ryton plant, but instead were obliged to build in an area of Scotland where there was a shortage of work. The Linwood plant was a disaster for many reasons - chiefly the Glaswegian workforce who had no experience in motor vehicle assembly, and the build quality and reliability of the cars inevitably suffered. Another problem was that the component suppliers were still based in the Midlands, and the company incurred further costs in transporting half-finished engine castings from Linwood to be machined at Ryton and returned to Linwood once they had been assembled - at the same time as completed Imps returned south again – in all a 600 mile round trip!
1967 After Rootes announced a £97 million loss, Chrysler took a controlling interest with the Industrial Reorganisation Corporation holding a minority. The 30 subsidiary companies were consolidated into 2 - Rootes Motors Ltd and Rootes Pressings (Scotland) Ltd - in order to reduce admin expenses[1]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Times, Dec 29, 1967
- Wikipedia