Takeover

The general depression of the 1920's saw the company resorting to general engineering work but some development continued and the alloy suction chamber and piston replaced the leather bellows used on earlier types. When the leather bellows were first introduced to control the movement of the tapered needle, there was much skepticism that they would soon perish and fail, but the family connection with the shoe business allowed access to a supply of the finest glace kid leather which worked very well and did not perish. These bellows were made by hand by Herbert's wife Mabel right through to 1928 - presumably, by this time for spares, not production. In 1925 S.U introduced the 2m, which is significant because it set the general pattern for S.U carburetters thereafter. Financial matters came to a head in 1926 when G. H. Skinner withdrew from the company. Carl Skinner was now in a difficult position and approached W. R. Morris (Lord Nuffield) and following negotiations the S.U company was purchased by Morris for £100,000. This was a considerable sum for a loss making concern but Morris obviously saw potential in the product-retaining Carl as manager. Soon after purchase, S.U was relocated to a part of the old Wolseley Plant in Adderley Park in Birmingham. Carl was given £17,000 for plant and equipment needed to prepare for mass production of carburetters, to meet the demand of 1,000 units a week for Morris Ltd alone. From this point, growth and development were the order of the day with new products such as the S.U Petrolift in 1929, an Aero carburetter in 1932 and the now familiar S.U Electric pump in 1934 along with improvements and additions to the carburetter range. In 1936 the S.U Carburetter Company Ltd was formed with Carl Skinner as Managing Director.