Established in 1926 as a joint venture between William Morris, the Budd Corporation and an American bank. The new venture started up by supplying car bodies to Morris's Morris Motor Company, with its plant being located alongside. By the 1950s, the company was making bodies for most of the major car companies in the UK including Rolls-Royce, Rootes, and the Standard Motor Co. The company later diversified into rolling stock, and refrigerators under the brand name Prestcold. In 1966 The company merged with Jaguar and the British Motor Corporation (BMC) to form British Motor Holdings (BMH).