Triumph

The British car brand Triumph was founded in 1885 but hasn’t operated since 1984 and it is currently an internal part of Leyland Motors. German men Siegfried Bettmann and Moritz Schulte opened a company named Bettmann & Co. in London in 1885, where they sold Triumph-branded bicycles. Soon they began producing their own devices, rather than just being sellers, opening a facility in Coventry, England.

In 1902, the company expanded its production to motorcycles as well, resulting on great interest and demand from the British Army for their Model H during the First World War. In a few years of production the Bettmann & Co. company became the largest producer of motorcycles in Britain, which was stated in 1918. Three years later, they began producing their first automobile, the 1.4-liter Triumph 10/20, by buying Dawson Car Company’s facilities and resources in Clay Lane. Until 1927, the company’s car production was made on a moderate scale.

It was not until 1930 that the Brettmann & Co. was renamed Triumph Motor Company, adopting their products’ established brand name. However, Triumph cars production became the company’s sole business in 1936 because the financial difficulties they experienced forced them to sell their bicycle and motorcycle productions that year.

T. W. Ward acquired the Triumph company in 1939 but the start of World War II forced the car production to be suspended, not to mention that their facilities got completely bombed and tore down in 1940. After the conflict was pacified, in1944, British carmaker Standard Motor Company acquired the Triumph brand name and the company’s remnants. Triumph was rehabilitated as a subsidiary car company of Standard, now named ‘Triumph Motor Company (1945) Limited’.

Wholly new Triumph cars began being produced at the parent company’s factory in Canley, Coventry – and there were absolutely no pre-war models within the new range. Standard’s management decided to split sedan car and sports car production in the early 1950’s, having the Standard badge on the sedans and leaving the sports car for Triumph to specialize in. The Triumph brand name, however, proved to sell better.

Leyland Motors – known as British Leyland Motor Corporation since 1968 – acquired Triumph at the end of 1960 and the company kept on producing new Triumph models for the next 20 years. The 1981 Triumph Acclaim was the last model to be produced and in 1984 the brand officially withdrew from the markets.

German car company BMW has owned Triumph’s trademark and production rights since 1994, when they bought the Rover Group and their subsidiary brands’ rights. Despite the several rumours of a supposed re-launch of the brand, no more Triumph cars have produced thus far.