British Motor Corporation
| British Motor Corporation (BMC) | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Limited Company |
| founding | 1952 |
| resolution | 1968 |
| Reason for dissolution | Merger with Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC) to form British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC) |
| Seat | Longbridge near Birmingham , United Kingdom |
| Branch | Automobile manufacturer |
The British Motor Corporation ( BMC for short ) was a vehicle manufacturer in Longbridge, England , which emerged from the merger of the Austin companies and the Nuffield organization in 1952. At that time, BMC was the largest British vehicle manufacturer with a share of 39 percent and produced a large number of vehicles under the brand names Austin, Morris , MG and Austin-Healey as well as brands that were almost unknown in German-speaking countries such as Vanden Plas , Riley and Wolseley . The Mini was one of the best-known BMC cars in Germany .
The company was based in Longbridge near Birmingham , where the main Austin plant was located. In general, Austin was the predominant partner of the group, which was particularly evident in the corresponding composition of the board.
Society faced a number of problems in the early 1960s. While the Austin plant in Longbridge was up-to-date and had sufficiently large capacities with short distances, Nuffield had a total of 16 smaller and often outdated production facilities, which were scattered all over the Midlands. In terms of marketing and cost control, on the other hand, the opposite was true, so that profit margins, especially at Austin, became smaller and smaller. Ironically, the best-selling car, the Mini, ultimately brought in a loss of 30 pounds per copy sold.
The now limited financial leeway restricted the possibilities for developing new vehicles, but most models of the 1960s with front-wheel drive, transverse engines, hydrolastic chassis and disc brakes were technically far ahead of their time. The models on offer, however, were less and less in line with contemporary tastes and contrasted with much more modern and more attractively designed vehicle types from competitors. As a result, the market shares, especially in the volume models, the Mini and the Austin 1100 , continued to decline.
The merger of the two companies resulted in a sometimes very opaque product portfolio. In some market segments, the models faced each other as competitors, while other segments were only weakly occupied. In addition, the Riley and Wolseley models in particular were only sold in very small numbers, which made profitable production practically impossible. However, due to the high level of loyalty of their customers, the discontinuation of these two brands was not easily possible, so the badge engineering of some Austin models was used here.
In 1966, BMC, the supplier and coachbuilder Pressed Steel and Jaguar Cars (with Daimler ) merged to form British Motor Holdings . In the course of the decline of the British vehicle industry with sharply declining sales on the domestic market and in the remaining Commonwealth countries, another merger took place in 1968 with the Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC) to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC).
