100 years of Morris
News

100 years of Morris

100 years of Morris

William Morris had a desire to produce a car at a price that everyone could afford.

If you're wondering why you've been seeing Morris cars in the last couple of months, it's because their owners are celebrating the 100th anniversary of William Morris building his first car in Oxford in April 2013.

The Morris Oxford was quickly dubbed the Bullnose due to its rounded radiator. From these small beginnings, the business grew rapidly and grew into a global conglomerate within 20 years.

Like many early car manufacturers, Morris grew up on a farm and moved off the land in search of work. He started working in a bicycle shop and later opened his own.

In 1900, Morris decided to go into motorcycle production. By 1910, he had established a taxi company and a car rental business. He named it "Morris Garages".

Like Henry Ford, William Morris sought to produce a car at a price affordable to everyone. In 1912, with the financial backing of the Earl of Macclesfield, Morris founded the Morris Oxford Manufacturing Company.

Morris also studied Henry Ford's manufacturing techniques, introduced the production line, and quickly achieved economies of scale. Morris also followed Ford's sales method of constantly cutting prices, which hurt his competitors and allowed Morris to win ever-increasing sales. By 1925 it had 40% of the UK market.

Morris constantly expanded its range of cars. MG (Morris Garages) was originally a "high performance" Oxford. Growing demand led to it becoming a design in its own right by 1930. He also bought the Riley and Wolseley brands.

Morris the man was a strong, confident character. Once the money started rolling in, he began making long ocean voyages, but insisted on making all the important business and product decisions in person.

During his long periods of absence, decision-making tended to stop and many talented managers resigned in desperation.

In 1948 Sir Alex Issigonis was released, designed by Morris Minor. The aging Morris did not like the car, he tried to block its production and refused to show up with it.

In 1952, due to financial problems, Morris merged with arch-rival Austin to form the British Motor Corporation (BMC), the world's fourth largest automobile company at the time.

Despite industry-leading designs like the Mini and Morris 1100, BMC never regained the sales success that Morris and Austin once enjoyed when they were separate companies. By the late 1980s, Leyland, as it was then known, was underwater.

Morris died in 1963. We estimate that there are about 80 Bullnose Morris vehicles in operation in Australia today.

David Burrell, editor of retroautos.com.au

Add a comment