From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Strategic decision of whether to engage in carriage building or focus solely on chassis production.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 74\1\ scan0021 | |
| Date | 19th January 1909 guessed | |
| -3- Ernest A Claremont Esq., My inclination is to argue that we hadbetter leave Carriagebuilding alone as the whole of our energies should be devoted to the production of the most perfect chassis in the World. If we have any time to give to Carriagebuilding, we could possibly instruct Carriagebuilders how to carry out our ideas as to what improvements could be made in design and construction. The objection to this system is that Carriage-builders reap the benefit of Rolls-Royce brains by incorporating Rolls-Royce ideas into carriages which are built by them for other people. On the other hand, if we made our own bodies and turned out something very successful the carriagebuilders would very quickly copy it. I should not be in favour of making a contract with any particular coachbuilder by which we should agree to take a certain number of Bodies off him every year for the simple reason that under such an arrangement the carriage-builder might be short-sighted enough to give us bad work with a view to making as big aprofit as possible. I should be inclined to go to people like Holmes and ask them to build us samples, and to give us a quotation | ||