Caffyns

Caffyns
legal form	Limited Company
founding	1856
Seat	Eastbourne , UK
Number of employees	420 (1939)
sales	£ 0.61m (1939)
Branch	Body shop , car dealership

Caffyns (also: Caffyn's and Caffyn Bros. ) is a former British body manufacturer who manufactured automobile bodies in the first half of the 20th century. The company is currently active in the automotive trade.

Company history

Caffyn's Garage in Eastbourne (1904)

A Rolls-Royce 20 (1929) dressed by Caffyns

Rolls-Royce 25/30 with Caffyns body

Caffyn was founded in 1856 by William Morris Caffyn in the southeast English city of Eastbourne ( East Sussex ). William Caffyn was a trained plumber and coppersmith. His company was initially licensed as a gas and water supplier. A little later, Caffyn also had a petroleum warehouse, became an oil and lamp dealer and was also an electrician at the turn of the century. In 1903 the founder's sons took over the business; the company has since traded as Caffyn Bros. At that time, the Caffyn brothers were expanding into the automotive sector. A repair workshop for automobiles, which at times was called Caffyn's Garage , became a little later an automobile trade, with more than 100 vehicles in its showroom as early as 1906. Caffyn was a dealer for the Argyll, Belsize, Clement-Talbot, Siddeley and Wolseley brands. The company maintained automobiles, sold accessories, some of which were developed in-house, and offered driving lessons. In 1909 the company was converted into a corporation; it now traded as Caffyns Garages Ltd.

After the end of the First World War , during which Caffyn manufactured armaments, the company began producing automobile bodies. Caffyn's activity was not limited to one or a few chassis manufacturers; rather, the company dressed up any chassis, “like a typical bodywork manufacturer from the province”, following the customer's wishes. These included Lancias , Darracqs , Wolseleys, and Sunbeams ; Occasionally, Caffyn also manufactured superstructures for Rolls-Royce .

The company grew steadily in the 1930s. In 1929, Caffyn sold more than 1,000 vehicles. The body shop was also expanded. In order to increase its own capacities, Caffyn took over the rival companies Rock, Thorpe & Watson and Maltby . Immediately before the outbreak of war, Caffyn had 450 employees and annual sales of £ 610,000.

During the Second World War , large parts of the production facilities were damaged or destroyed. After the end of the war, the production of vehicle bodies was not resumed; only individual chassis were re-bodyworked or revised at the customer's request. The company focused on the sale of passenger cars and commercial vehicles. In the 1960s and 1970s, Caffyns sold the brands of the British Leyland Motor Corporation , but was also a Rolls-Royce dealer at times. In the 21st century, Caffyn is a Volkswagen Group dealer and also sells Vauxhall , Volvo and Land Rover .

literature

Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 .

Web links

Commons : Caffyns  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Homepage of Caffyn Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Overview of the company's history on the website www.caffyns.co.uk ( memento of the original from June 13, 2015 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed June 28, 2015). 
2. ↑ Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 84.
3. ↑ Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 85.