Staff 1929
We have a photo of the Staff of No. 5 Panel Department of 1929, which includes my father. It was taken at the Woodville Holden Motor Body Builders Ltd. on Port Road, Woodville, South Australia. We also have his termination letter from Holden. He also told me of the origins of the name HR Holden.
Some Information About Holden Motor Body Builders (HMBB)
In 1919, Holden & Frost registered "Holden's Motor Body Builders" as a separate company specializing in car bodies. At the time they built bodies for Overland, Chevrolet, Durant, Hupmobile and Dodge, and by 1923 they were producing over 12,000 bodies per year.
By 1923, concerned with rising import duties on built-up bodies, the GM Export Company opened negotiations with H.J. Holden, of the established Holden Motor Body Builders, to assemble completely knocked down chassis at the large new motor body plant to be built in Woodville, South Australia. A deal to set aside the whole of the Woodville Plant for the production of Chevrolet and Buick Motor Car bodies and bodies for other General Motors cars and not manufacture motor bodies for other makes of car at this plant was signed later the same year.
In 1924, "Holden's Motor Body Builders" became the sole Australian body builder for General Motors vehicles and had an output of over 22,000 bodies (over 11,000 for GM) in 65 different body styles.
During the 'Great Depression' in 1930, production fell from 34,000 units per year to a mere 1651 and, in 1931, General Motors were able to buy the entire Holden's Motor Body Builders and merge it with their North American operation to form General Motors - Holden's.
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