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CMV HISTORY (page 1)
1934 - A company was born
February 26th, 1934 saw the launching of a fledgling new motor company in Adelaide, the objectives of which were to specialise in the sale and service of commercial vehicles. Perhaps no more auspicious time could have been chosen to launch a new motor company than during the Great Depression, and even more a company which intended limiting itself to specialising in the sale and service of trucks.
Under the guidance of the late Sidney Crawford, founder of the Company, who with a few friends managed to raise £7100 of capital for this new venture, the company began operations in premises leased for £10 per week at 62 Flinders Street, Adelaide.
In the 1920s and early '30s the sale and service of commercial vehicles, as distinct from motor cars, was very much neglected. Few motor company executives realised the then potential for truck sales. Perhaps that was not surprising, with the very severe restrictions imposed on the carriage of goods by trucks then applying as a means of protecting the revenue of the State railway system.
However, with great enthusiasm and armed with the British Leyland truck distributorship and the opportunity to become the distributor in South Australia for a then spectacular American truck called the Diamond T, CMV commenced trading.
1935 - The first acquisition
In 1935 the Company took the next step in its progress, through the acquisition of the American Case Tractor distributorship from the then South Australian Farmers' Union. This was at a time when tractors were beginning to replace draught horse teams on farms. Furthermore, pneumatic tyres were being fitted to farm tractors for the first time. In fact, CMV was the first tractor distributor in Australia to sell tractors fitted with pneumatic tyres for general farm work.
In 1938 the Company became the S.A. distributor for Commer trucks but little progress was made with Commer until after the Second World War. In the meantime, sales of Diamond T particularly flourished, both as commercial vehicles and as passenger buses.
During the Second World War, new vehicles were of course, very scarce. Some Case tractors were still being imported for the important contribution of food production to the war effort. A few American White trucks imported for essential industries were handled by the Company. These limited sales coupled with some defence contract work and the production, sale and fitting of Brig gas producers, due to the very severe petrol rationing, helped the Company to weather the storm of the war years.
In late 1945 and 1946 when new vehicles were still in extremely short supply, the purchase of a considerable number of war disposal trucks in the Northern Territory kept the doors open until supplies of Commer trucks from the UK and Diamond Ts from the USA recommenced and shipments of Case tractors increased.
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