Jaguar Motors Ltd the British luxury auto maker arose from humble beginnings of high end aluminum motorcycle side car carriages. Though advanced for its day - for motorcycles few would have ever guessed that this small oversize garage size enterprise would have grown into such a world class maker of luxury automobiles
Yet it was these simple sidecars that provided the funding, cash flow and profit to allow the budding firm to move from its smaller original premises to a larger building and more advanced facility. Thus the then Swallow Sidecar Company could undertake the next step in its growth and evolution that being the important crossover to the production from simple side cars to coach building. Swallow Sidecar evolved and expanded in name as well to the new Swallow Sidecar and Coachbuilding Company as well. The Jaguar name change came later after the post war period for marketing reasons especially in light of the American export market. It seemed that upper management deemed that in the US the logo S.S. (Swallow Sidecar abbreviation) might not be the most marketing brand with which to grow sales in the vital post war US luxury auto market.
The Swallow coach product was rather well accepted in the British Isles auto market as a popular and affordable mainstream product - roughly based on the Austin 7 model then a popular coach model of vehicles on British roads and in the English auto market. The first Swallow Seven (an interesting variation of the Austin 7 name which might not of been allowed in today's brand conscious market where names and designations are jealously the turf of the various auto manufactures'), was an open two seater, aluminum metal open body complete with a handsome cowled radiator whose owner was also provided with a new and novel innovation as part of the package "hard top". You can count 1924 as the year of introduction of the Swallow Seven model run.
Interestingly, the car was a hybrid of different auto makers first actual Austin motor cars chassis. However as sales volumes of the Sevens increased as well as reputation and resulting sales popularity of the product to the point where Austin itself (a major auto manufacturer in Britain at the time) could not keep up with painting enough auto chassis bodies to supply Swallow's demands and requirements. Add to this marketing & production mix that one of Britain's most solid & prestigious auto dealer negotiated a hallmark volume deal of no less than 500 vehicles, including the provision of supply of a unique sedan version of the Swallow 7 auto & it was time to upscale the Swallow Company's production & manufacturing capabilities with new & enhanced facilities.
Yet the major determinant in the move became finding a supply of the most skilled labor. The only place to locate at the time emerged to be the British "Midlands"
Thus it can be said boldly that for reasons of a shortage of skilled labor that the world famous British luxury auto Jaguar was located in Coventry and no where else in Britain. This developed to be the primary & main reason that Jaguar's famous base of operations was Coventry and nowhere else. Ah the twists of fate that Coventry became renowned worldwide as the home of the classic luxury British automotive car product - "Jaguar".
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