Pressed Steel Company

British car body manufacturer active since 2021

Pressed Steel Company Limited was a British car body manufacturing business founded at Cowley near Oxford in 1926 as a joint venture between William Morris, Budd Corporation of Philadelphia USA, which held the controlling interest, and a British / American bank J. Henry Schroder & Co. At that time the company was named The Pressed Steel Company of Great Britain Limited. It acquired Budd's patent rights and processes for use in the United Kingdom. Morris transferred his interest to his company, Morris Motors Limited. Pressed Steel was acquired in 1965 by the British Motor Corporation and this led to BMC's acquisition of Jaguar later in 1965. At the end of 1966 BMC changed its name to British Motor Holdings (BMH). BMH merged with Leyland Motors in 1968 to create British Leyland and Pressed Steel's businesses were absorbed into the new conglomerate. Many components of the former Pressed Steel business were gradually divested following British Leyland's bankruptcy, nationalization and subsequent restructuring. Today three major Pressed Steel factories are still in operation. The Cowley plant is now where BMW's Mini is assembled, known as Plant Oxford. At the old Swindon plant the BMW subsidiary Swindon Pressings Limited, or Plant Swindon, produces parts for the new Mini. Lastly, Pressed Steel's former factory in Castle Bromwich now forms part of Jaguar's main assembly plant.

William Morris had recognised the potential of pressed steel car bodies being developed by Budd Corporation in U. S. A. and wanted them for his own cars. The new joint venture initially supplied car bodies to Morris's Morris Motors with its plant located alongside the new Pressed Steel plant across what became the A4142 spanned by a special bridge between plants. This was several years after Andre Citroen was co operating with Budd in France for building Citroen car bodies. The venture was not a success. In May 1930 it was announced that arrangements had been concluded to place the Pressed Steel plant under British control. Operations had not gathered pace as expected. Many difficulties had been encountered. The British steel industry was unable to provide steel sheets large enough for the Budd machines and, once they came available, in any case American supplies were still 25% cheaper than local supplies. Tycoons William R. Morris and Edward G. Budd were unable to settle their differences. Budd took his troubles with Morris to the High Court, which decided in Budd's favour and in June 1930, by a resolution of the shareholders supported by an order of the High Court the directors of Morris Motors Limited were obliged to retire from the Pressed Steel board, with the share interests of Morris Motors either taken over by other interests or surrendered to the company. This was followed by the announcement of a reduction of Pressed Steel's capital from £1.6 million to £1.2 million. Morris lost the capital he had invested and the right to appoint directors, Pressed Steel was now free to supply other customers. In the coachwork exhibition at the 1931 Olympia Motor Show alongside the products of Salmons, Thrupp and Maberly, Windovers etc. Pressed Steel Company displayed bodies of a Twelve six Harley de luxe Austin saloon, a Hillman Wizard 75 de luxe saloon and a 12 horsepower six cylinder Rover Pilot. Readers of The Times were told the bodies were made in four pieces, the back, two sides and the front. The doors were also stamped in one. These all steel bodies were said to give the cars lightness with great strength, more room inside and better visibility.

At the very end of 1935 Budd agreed to sell their controlling interest to British interests and then Pressed Steel was fully independent having from mid 1930 also produced car bodies for Morris's competitors. The degree of completion of Pressed Steel's finished product varied widely. In some cases unpainted stampings were shipped to the customer's plant for finishing and assembly. In other cases, customers were sent their bodies fully assembled, painted, trimmed and glazed.

When compared with USA and France the British automotive industry then had little vertical integration. Britain's "Big Five" looked to their body suppliers. In the spring of 1953 Briggs Motor Bodies, American like Budd, had the bulk of its British operation swallowed by Ford. The following autumn The British Motor Corporation acquired Fisher & Ludlow. Fisher & Ludlow supplied Standard Triumph who were then obliged to take control of the relatively small Mulliners but that took a few more years to develop and Mulliners was to close at the end of 1960. Pressed Steel stood alone as the only remaining independent supplier of mass produced car bodies in Britain. The largest body manufacturers in Britain and pioneers in Britain of pressed steel bodywork and unitary construction in quantity. Manufacturer of Prestcold refrigerators, steel railway wagons, agricultural implements and pressings of all types. Names to which pressings were supplied not included in the above list include Rolls Royce and Bentley, Alfa Romeo, Volvo, Vauxhall.

In 1956 they opened a new plant in Swindon to provide extra capacity, and in 1961 they opened their Linwood, Scotland plant alongside the new Rootes Linwood plant to provide bodies for the new Hillman Imp being produced there. and BMC set about combining Pressed Steel with its existing body making subsidiary Fisher and Ludlow, acquired by BMC some twelve years earlier, thereby creating Pressed Steel Fisher (PS F). At the time of the merger Pressed Steel was the largest independent manufacturer of car bodies and car body tooling in the world. On 14 December 1966 BMC shareholders approved the change of its name to British Motor Holdings (BMH) and it took effect from that moment. Early in 1968 BMH merged with the Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC) to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), By this time PS F had become the world's largest independent car body and car body tool manufacturer, and supplied bodies and tools not only for the British motor industry but also for Volvo, Alfa Romeo and Hindustan Motors.

When BMW acquired Rover Group in 1994 it became owner of the Swindon pressing plant. Although BMW disposed of much of Rover Group's assets in 2000, they retained the Swindon pressings plant and set up a subsidiary, Swindon Pressings Limited (SPL), there in 2000. SPL now provides most of the body panels and body sub assemblies for the Mini models produced at Plant Oxford in Cowley, at what was the Pressed Steel site.