Every company has its financial ups and downs, but in Standard-Triumph's case the swings did seem to be extraordinarily large. At the start of the 1960s they were also very rapid, although the origins of what was a nearterminal decline had already been sown in the 1950s.
For this part of the story we will have to return briefly to an even earlier date – 1946 in fact, when Standard started building tractors for Harry Ferguson at Banner Lane in Coventry. This turned out to be a hugely profitable venture for the company. Things started to unravel in 1953 though, when Ferguson decided to sell out to the Canadian tractor firm, Massey-Harris. At this point Standard-Triumph still had a contract to build Ferguson tractors until the end of 1955, but Sir John Black promptly signed a deal with Massey- Harris-Ferguson to build them for a further 12 years.
That might have secured the company's revenue stream, but relations between the Canadian and British firms were always strained, and only grew worse over time. Eventually, in the summer of 1959 they parted ways, Standard-Triumph losing a rich source of income but gaining a large lump sum of cash in the divorce settlement. They promptly moved their Design, Engineering and Development Departments out of Banner Lane and into Fletchamstead North at Canley.
This cash did not last long though, because Standard- Triumph was busy buying up suppliers. This process was not part of a megalomaniac desire to conquer the world, but was born out of the need to secure supplies. A large part of the problem was that since the 1930s, Standard had bought in its bodies from independent suppliers. Unfortunately, by the 1950s those suppliers were being bought up by the opposition or struggling to cope with demand from a number of different clients, a problem we touched
