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Crawley Family History

CRAWLEY INVOLVEMENT IN MERCEDES-BENZ

One of the pioneers of the post-war recovery of Mercedes Benz in Britain, J F ‘Jack’ Crawley, my father, died on January 29^th, 2001.  As a tribute to his memory the Mercedes Benz Owner's Club Gazette published a memoir he had prepared, in conjunction with Eric Johnson, as part of a corporate history of the marque in Britain. I hope this memoir will go some way to showing how our family involvement with Mercedes Benz began and has persisted.

Another perspective by J F Crawley

Mercedes Benz has figured largely in my business life and I count myself privileged to have been present at some important turning points of the marque’s history in Britain.  I am also fortunate in having worked on both the retail motor trade and importing sides and can, therefore, claim to have a different perspective from someone who has perhaps only seen life from one side of the fence. 

When I came out of the service at the war’s end I joined Rolls-Royce and later their London agents H R Owen.  Two or three years later I started selling cars as a freelance salesman, and readily admit to having had a somewhat dilettantish view of the motor business then.  It seemed to me to be just an amusing way of making some money to be spent on a lotus eating life in the south of France or skiing.

An early lesson 

That’s not to say it was all easy – very early on I learned a hard lesson from being the victim of a confidence trick and buying a car which didn’t exist.  The unfortunate thing was that it used up all the money my father had loaned me to get started as a freelance motor trader.  However, I was able to recover from this situation and pay him back fairly quickly. 

My somewhat casual approach to motor trading came to an end when I was persuaded to join forces with a very experienced and charismatic dealer, Clifford Taylor.  We formed Taylor and Crawley Ltd and, at first, operated out of Clifford’s splendid office in Kensington Court.  We also had a rented garage nearby in which to keep the stock and, like Topsy, ‘we just growed’, gradually acquiring workshops, a coachbuilding shop and skilled operatives.  We advertised extensively and tended to concentrate on Rolls-Royce, Bentley and American cars, which were avoided by other dealers because they were considered ‘too specialised’.  We worked closely with other specialists and soon built up quite a respectable business. 

One of my favourite customers was a wealthy London solicitor and businessman named Arthur Dennis.  He sat on the boards of a number of companies, including pre-war, Thomas Tilling Ltd.  He was a thorough-going motor enthusiast and had been known to buy as many as three cars in a single day!  He exerted powerful pressure on his business contacts to deal with Taylor and Crawley, giving added momentum to our business.   Through his connections, Arthur Dennis discovered that the Davis brothers were planning to resume importing and marketing Mercedes Benz cars, and he suggested that Taylor and Crawley should apply for the franchise.  There was an almost comical ‘Catch 22’ situation to be overcome first.   Before we could become dealers for new cars, we had to become members of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.  But we couldn’t join that august body until we were actually dealers…  This was, of course, long before business could be conducted on the basis of a ‘Letter of Intent’.  Suffice it to say that a way around the problem was found, and Taylor and Crawley were duly appointed co-distributors in London, along with Brooklands Motors and J S Truscott, who had been Mercedes Benz agents before the war.  While the Mercedes Benz business had been kept ticking over in the immediate post-war years, it is fair to say that there was no-one in the organisation with any real experience of motor trading.  We were all learning, but I have to say that they didn’t really have a clue.  Clifford was very experienced, having been in the business before the war and, through my experience with Rolls-Royce and H R Owen, we knew something about specifying cars to meet likely customer needs.

The Davis brothers and the people they had gathered about them were the nicest possible people on a personal basis, but they were totally naïve and inexperienced about the motor business.  Sales management was in the hands of a name called Geoffrey Dean, but everyone called him ‘Basil’ after a well-known stage and film director of that name.  He had a leg-man called Jimmy Silver who had been a chauffeur at Jack Barclay’s, and who had an uncanny ability to ingratiate himself with anyone with whom he worked.  He was a self-taught wise-acre who had persuaded his employers that, because of his connections with Jack Barclay and the Warren Street used car market, he knew the motor trade and was the right man for the job. 

Although Jimmy Silver is generally given the credit for having built up the distribution network for Mercedes Benz after the war, it was really largely due to some experienced motor traders recognising the Mercedes Benz franchise for what it was – potentially very valuable.  People like Rose who owned Charles Sidney, Bradford, had been an Aston Martin dealer before the war.  Tony Scatchard, who ran Charles Sidney, had been with Armstrong-Siddeley.  They knew a good thing when they saw it.  Certainly Jimmy Silver travelled the country meeting people and inspecting premises before signing them up.  But much of the credit for the success of companies such as Mill Gararges, Sunderland; Callanders Engineering Co, Glasgow; B & K Thomas, Nottingham and Charles Sidney, Bradford is due to the entrepreneurial skills of their proprietors and their faith in the future of the product.  Many of these early distributors are still trading successfully as Mercedes Benz dealers 50 years later.

Pioneers 

To a large extent, such success as the marque enjoyed in those early days was achieved through the efforts of those pioneering early distributors.  They launched Mercedes Benz onto the post-war British car market, and their success was achieved despite Mercedes Benz (GB) Ltd, rather than with their help.  For example, the importers demanded a 20 percent cash deposit from distributors ordering and specifying a car.  Yet when those early cars began to come through, they were allocated to other newer distributors and dealers.  When we protested, their answer was that we could not “hog all the new cars coming through” because there were other dealers who had been appointed in the meantime and they needed cars too.  The point that these were painstakingly specified, deposit-paid and, in some cases even sold, seems to have escaped them.  It must have come hard for respectable City solicitors such as the Davis brothers to have their company called crooked – but that is what it came to at a very acrimonious meeting.  We told them “this is absolutely monstrous, you are taking money under false pretences.   In fact it is probably a criminal offence”. 

There were other ineptitudes too.  The resumption of new car sales was undertaken with woefully inadequate resources.  Initially there were no catalogues or posters available.  These only began to arrive in the luggage compartments of cars driven over from the factory by visiting export executives, and later in our own cars when we started collecting them in order to safeguard our own and our customers’ interests. 

Taylor and Crawley was up and running by the time of the first motor show at which imported cars could be shown.  The first monocoque or integral body and chassis construction 180 was new for the show, having been introduced at the Frankfurt show earlier. 
A six-cylinder 220 model was known to be in the pipeline for announcement at the Geneva Motor Show the following March.  There was also the prospect of the new 300SL sports model going into production, which was exciting news for the small British distribution network. 

Total numbers sold in those early days were miniscule compared to today. 

Sales of Mercedes Benz cars, 1953-1959:

          1953 – 181

          1954 – 233

          1955 – 678

          1956 – 353

          1957 – 517

          1958 – 795

          1959 – 918 

The second half of the 1950s came under the cloud of what is now called ‘The Suez Crisis’ of 1956.  Britain and France’s ill-fated intervention in the Egypt-Israel conflict brought the threat of another war.  Even though war was averted there was still petrol rationing and, with it, a collapse of confidence in the motor trade.  As may be seen from the figures, sales of Mercedes Benz cars fell in 1956 to nearly half the level of the previous year, and they did not recover fully until 1958.  This crisis was to spell the end of the Taylor and Crawley partnership.  The company continued to represent Mercedes Benz in Mayfair with Clifford in control, but we decided to go our separate ways.

Initially with friends John Goldthorpe and Sir Gawaine Bailley, and later with the participation of Tommy Sopwith, I managed to acquire the shares of Woking Motors Ltd.  Owen Williams agreed to stay on in an advisory capacity at first, but later proved to be indispensable, and stayed on through a further change of ownership until he retired as Managing Director in 1982.

John Goldthorpe put in a number of years as Service Director before retiring to pursue other interests.  Sir Gawaine Bailley came to us in an unusual way.  He was very keen on motoring and his guardian, a customer of long standing, Lord Margerison, asked us to take him in so he could learn the motor business.  I said he ought to be studying accountancy, so that he would be able to manage his inherited wealth later on.  He subsequently joined de Leutz and, although he didn’t qualify, he learned a great deal about accounting which stood him in good stead later. 

Finally there was Tommy Sopwith, youngest son of the legendary Sir Thomas Sopwith, aviation pioneer, aircraft designer and manufacturer and challenger for the yachting holy grail – the America’s Cup – in the 1930s.  Tommy has since become an important member of the Mercedes Benz dealer organisation with major investments in Brighton and Reading. 

We first met when he was working in the research and development department of British quality car makers Armstrong-Siddeley.  Clifford had taken on the Armstrong Siddeley franchise, and Tommy called to demonstrate their latest offering to us.  He found himself on the receiving end of a counter-attack in the form of a demonstration drive in a Mercedes Benz which resulted in his purchasing not one, but two cars, as well as other far-reaching effects!  Like his father, Tommy was a keen sportsman but, after a particularly nasty accident, he promised his parents that he wouldn’t go motor racing again, contenting himself with owning and managing a racing team.  He could afford to hire the best talent available at the time, but thought it would be more fun to have his friends driving for him.  I suggested he form Equipe Endeavour together with Sir Gawaine Bailley, and this was how Sir Gawaine and I came to be driving Lotus sports cars and Jaguar saloons in races alongside such notables as Stirling Moss, Mike Hawthorn and Colin Chapman.  Having expressed an interest in my business, Tommy became the fourth shareholder in Woking Motors – the only time he and Sir Gawaine ever took minority shareholdings as far as I know. 

Development 

From small beginnings, Woking grew to pre-eminence in the business of retailing and wholesaling quality cars.  In its first year of operation under Owen’s ownership, Woking ordered and sold 12 Mercedes Benz cars.  By the time Owen retired in 1982, the company was selling 400 cars.  At its peak, when acting as Distributors for Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Berkshire, Woking was handling 600 Mercedes Benz cars as well as 1,200 Audis. 

One of the keys to the success of the company was its development as specialists in good second-hand Mercedes Benz cars.  From a small country garage, it grew to become a nationally-known organisation specialising in and continuously carrying a large stock of good quality used Mercedes cars.  We pioneered the idea of advertising in the national press to display our wares before the largest possible audience – a previously unheard of extravagance for a small country garage. 

We introduced a 12-month guarantee for Mercedes Benz cars at a time when the factory were only offering three months (later increased to six).  This was based on nothing more than our experience that, provided the cars were properly looked after, nothing seemed to go wrong with them.  We were so confident that we didn’t even bother to write down the terms of the guarantee until requested to do so later by a somewhat surprised factory executive!  It was thought to be a brave marketing initiative at the time. 

As the business expanded, another bold decision was taken.  This was to become exclusive Mercedes Benz dealers.  In 1964, Woking was the first post-war British dealer to become an exclusive outlet for Mercedes-Benz.  Now more than 80 per cent of the total British network is exclusive. 

By the early 1970s the business had become successful enough to attract the attention of a large group interested in acquiring it, and negotiations were entered into.  It soon became evident that Thomas Tilling Ltd, who then still owned Mercedes Benz (Great Britain) Ltd, were not prepared to see Woking in other hands, and made a counter offer which was accepted.  In June 1972, Woking Motors became a member of the Thomas Tilling ‘family of firms’. 

This was to lead to my becoming more directly involved with the business of importing and marketing Mercedes Benz cars nationally rather than locally.  Although strongly tempted to turn aside from the world of business and pursue more pleasurable interests such as painting or skiing, I stayed on as Managing Director under Tillings ownership.   With the take-over by DBAG in January 1974, I found myself once again cast in the role of the importer’s strongest critic.  They were, of course, incredibly difficult times with economic chaos and industrial strife of pandemic proportions raging throughout the civilised world.  Nevertheless, I felt that the management of the newly-formed Mercedes Benz (United Kingdom) Ltd, were not giving themselves the best chance of solving their problems.   

When Daimler-Benz world-wide sales director Heinz C Hoppe came to look at their latest acquisition, he duly visited Woking Motors, together with Gerd Hoffmann, Managing Director of MB (UK) Ltd.  “What do you need from me to help you sell more Mercedes Benz cars?” he asked.  “Re-structure Brentford” I replied, “it’s a shambles with no-one doing distribution properly.”  “You do it” said Hoppe.  “No thanks,” I answered, “it’s not my scene – I’m not a big company man.”  However I found it difficult to refuse when he telephoned the following Monday from Moscow and asked me to go to Brentford that very afternoon and start work.  People like Hoppe get where they do by being persuasive. 

Poacher turns game-keeper 

So, in June 1975, just 18 months after Daimler-Benz AG had resumed responsibility for its own affairs in Britain, I was appointed General Manager, Passenger Cars, reporting to Gerd Hoffmann and responsible for all aspects of passenger car sales, from their importation to their final sale.

Just as after the Suez crisis nearly 20 years earlier, the first energy shock following the Egypt-Israel conflict of autumn 1973 brought about a collapse of confidence, stocks of new cars had built up at Zeebrugge and weren’t moving.  Together with WF ‘Bill’ Heskins, hastily recruited from Woking as Distribution Manager, we set about creating a shortage from a glut.  The few cars that were being sold were naturally the ones which had come in most recently and which were well specified.  Older cars, perhaps unsurprisingly, were sticking.  They had all been allocated to individual dealers, but there was no momentum.  To get the log jam moving, drastic measures had to be adopted. 

Our solution was to start taking cars back from dealers.  One of the problems was that in the post take-over period, no-one had turned off the tap of the supply line from the factory.  Cars were still coming into the country, but because of the economic circumstances only very few were being sold.  1974 was a very hard year.  So it was that surprised distributors found themselves receiving telephone calls from Brentford in which they were told, politely but firmly, that they could no longer regard as ‘theirs’, cars which they had ordered and which were being held in stock in Zeebrugge.  “But they are ours, if you take them away, we won’t have anything to sell” was the importers’ reply.  Maybe it was a confidence trick, but distributors and dealers needed to be reminded of their responsibilities.  It was really only a question of confidence in any case, and merely a matter of time before the stock began to move properly again.  One of the biggest changes which occurred during my time as General Manager, Passenger Cars, was the move from a two-tier, to a single tier dealer organisation.  Needless to say as a former Distributor, I was not in favour! 

(With this reference to his years as a distributor, wholesaling cars to smaller retail dealers from Woking Motors, Jack Crawley’s personal view of Mercedes Benz post-war, as published in the Mercedes Benz Club Gazette, ends. However, amongst some old papers from the attic, I have recently found a longer version of this memoir that extends thus.)

I had always maintained that having a strong distributor, able to protect the dealers under him, was the right way to market a luxury product. When Woking were distributors, we actually took cars back from weaker dealers rather than let them go broke.

However, I knew the change to single tier operation was inevitable because Daimler Benz worked that way and other manufacturers had also moved in this direction in Britain.

Nevertheless, with highly specialised expensive cars, many dealers couldn't really afford the franchise. They couldn't hold stocks of the whole range, or put demonstrators on the road. So the first step was to help them become more profitable. This meant changing the discounting habits of a lifetime for many of them.

Having largely disposed of the accumulated stocks, and with a gradual recovery under way, demand began to increase again, giving a more favourable climate for change. We set about creating confidence in the franchise which meant introducing much more orderly marketing.

Inevitably this meant that at first we had to hold back some of the bigger distributors from using their strength to the detriment of the smaller, weaker dealers, while encouraging the latter to become more professional. As I saw it the old habit of discounting had to be more than discouraged - it had to be eliminated. To my mind there was no way a luxury item could be discounted without being devalued.

As by this time there was a shortage of supply, we were able to use the Distribution Department, with its control over the allocation of cars, as a 'carrot and stick' device to either encourage or discipline.

It meant changing their whole philosophy of life. They had always discounted. But as the cars became more desirable, as delivery times lengthened, dealers were able to say to their customers - "the price is so and so, and you will have to wait six months. There is no question of a discount, because if you don't take the car, we have other people waiting for it."

It was extremely difficult to achieve this without them appearing arrogant and teaching dealer salesmen to say "no" gracefully wasn't easy.

Fortunately for me, my credibility with the dealers was enhanced in what I was trying to do, by my having been 'one of them'. In a way, they accepted things from me which they perhaps wouldn't have done from someone without these credentials.

The support of Managing Director Gerd Hoffman was also vital. We actually sacked a few dealers who didn't toe the line 'pour encourager les autres'. this certainly gave the others pause for thought and materially assisted the drive against 'disorderly marketing' as discounting is sometimes euphemistically called.

The next stage was to make the whole franchise more professional in its attitudes not only to sales, but in its approach to parts and service matters. This involved setting up the Technicians Guild to bring some much-needed pride and status into the workshop area.

Total faith in the product was something I had brought over with me from my dealer days, to working with the importer. Its sheer integrity won my admiration early on and helped me to win the confidence of customers reluctant to buy German - which was not easy at first. This admiration for the products bearing the 'three pointed star' is something which has lasted more than 35 years. My greatest reward has been to see the reputation of the franchise grow until today it is the envy of the industry.

His career with the company continued, however, and he opened and ran the prestigious new Export and Diplomatic showrooms in Piccadilly, coincidentally just around the corner from HR Owen, where he had started for 'Percy' Fritz Swain all those years ago. Upon his retirement he lived quietly, with my mother Mary, in West Sussex, occasionally lending an experienced ear to his friend, Tommy Sopwith, at his Mercedes Benz dealership in Brighton. He also found the time to pursue his best loved hobby of painting, both portraits and landscapes, and most notably a fine collection of Mercedes Benz Grand Prix cars. He exhibited his portrait of my mother in the Royal Portrait Painters gallery in the Mall. The artists David Shepherd and John Heseltine, early customers and later friends, encouraged him and often wondered why he had chosen the motor-car over the canvas. The gentle evening light on the South Downs was always a pleasure to him.