BRITISH MOTOR INDUSTRY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20610, 8 January 1929, Page 4

BRITISH MOTOR INDUSTRY.

NEW FACTORY IN ESSEX. DOUBLING TOTAL OUTPUT. A development which will, it is hoped, largely increase the British export trade in motor vehicles, is foreshadowed in the formation of a new British company, the Ford Motor Company, Ltd. This company is unique that it is the first in which Henry Ford has offered to the public an opportunity of participating in the business which has made him the richest man in the world. The company will have a capital of £7,000,000, of which 40 per cent, will be issued for public subscription. It will acquire the assets of Ford companies all over Europe. Further, it will have the sole trading rights of all Europe (excluding Russia), of Africa (excluding British colonies, which, as hitherto, will be supplied from the Canadian factory) and of Asia Minor, Significant developments have alreadytaken place. A large sign on the last remaining vacant site in Regent street indicates the position of the new company’s showrooms and executive offices, which will thus be situated in the hub of the Empire, within a stone’s throw of Piccadilly Circus. Simultaneously,- work has already begun' on the site at Dagenham, in Essex, acquired some years ago by the Ford interests. When completed this plant will have a capacity of 200,000 cars per annum—practically double the entire annual output of all existing British motor manufacturing plants combined. It is anticipated that work, for thousands for three years will be provided in the construction of the Dagenham plant. Still more thousands will be required when the factory is in production. The site at Dagenham has a frontage to the river of two-fifths of a mile. It extends inland for a mile. It will be the biggest motoring factory in the world outside America and by far and away the biggest thing of its kind ever seen in the British Isles. The Ford factory at Cork will be the second branch of the new company’s activities. It will be henceforth devoted exclusively to the production of the Fordson . tractor. For the time being it will have the sole selling rights of the tractor throughout the world, including America itself. The Fordson plant at Detroit has been stripped of every nut and bolt, of every machine, and all the equipment is to be erected on the banks of the Lea. This plant, in 1920, will turn out 30,000 tractors. For some years, at any rate until Dagenham can get into volume production, the Trafford Park plant, Manchester, will go on increasing. For next year, for example, an output of 40,000 cars is planned, and it will probably be three years before Dagenham is ready to take over the total volume of production. Thereafter Manchester will be utilised as an assembling plant for the north, while for many years its production of parts will also prove a steady source of employment. Manchester will always remain an important factor in the Ford organisation, though its fellow plant at Dagenham will easily outstrip it.