Argyll Motors Ltd: A Corporate Post-Mortem

This article analyses for the first time the failure of a key motor manufacturing company, Argyll Motors Ltd, which by 1906 possessed Europe's largest and most up-to-date vehicle production plan, located at Alexandria, near Glasgow. Building upon the recent discovery that the company was financially mismanaged, the article goes on to examine its marketing policies and practices, its design and production technologies and its strategic management decisions. It concludes that the proximate cause of the firm's collapse was financial mismanagement, which, complicated by a recession, precipitated liquidation within three years. This conclusion has implications for explanations of the early Scottish motor industry's failure.