Rootes Group

Common card · No. 247108

The Rootes Group was a British automobile manufacturer and, separately, a major motor distributors and dealers business. From headquarters in the West End of London, the manufacturer was based in the Midlands and the distribution and dealers business in the south of England. In the decade 1928–1938, brothers William and Reginald Rootes, made prosperous by their very successful motor car distribution and servicing business, were keen to enter manufacturing for closer control of the products they were selling. With the financial support of Prudential Assurance, the two brothers bought many well-known British motor manufacturers—including Hillman, Humber, Singer, Sunbeam, Talbot, Commer and Karrier. At its height in 1960, Rootes Group had manufacturing plants in the Midlands at Coventry and Birmingham, in southern England at Acton, Luton and Dunstable, and a brand-new plant in the west of Scotland at Linwood. From its offices in Devonshire House on Piccadilly in central London, it controlled...

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