H&M Body Corporation

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The H & M Body Corporation is a former American body construction company that produced large series for the automotive industry.

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The trigger for the establishment of the company were delivery bottlenecks from which the automaker Hupp Motor Car Company (Hupmobile) in Detroit (Michigan) and Mitchell Motors Company in Racine (Wisconsin) suffered. The H & M Body Corporation was consequently a joint venture between these two companies. A suitable facility was purchased near the Mitchell facility in Racine, at the intersection of Center Street and Washington Avenue. Managing Director was GW Kerr , who at the end of 1921 had a comparable position at Rolls-Royce of America in Springfield ( Massachusetts ), where he was in charge of the company's own body department.

H&M bodies were delivered in the white ; This means that the recipient took care of the painting, assembly on the chassis and final assembly himself. In addition to Hupmobile and Mitchell, customers were a few smaller automobile manufacturers such as Detroit Electric .

On August 1st, Hupmobile took over the entire plant. At that time the company had around 600 employees. As early as 1922, the plant reached its capacity limit of 20,000 bodies. Hupmobile procured additional superstructures elsewhere and tried to purchase the production facilities of the Mitchell Motor Car Company, which went bankrupt in 1924. That failed, and Willys-Overland was awarded the contract . Hupmobile then not only gave up its plans for a second location in Racine. As a result of a new strategy, the H & M Body Corporation was sold at a lower value to the Murray Corporation , which in return guaranteed the delivery and price of bodies for five years. Murray emerged from a reorganization of the former Hupmobile supplier CR Wilson Body Company .

The deal with Murray solved Hupmobile's bodywork problems, but Murray, based in Detroit, had big problems running the business and found no other buyers besides Hupmobile. When exactly the plant was closed is not clear.

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