Monday, Mar. 08, 1926

General Motors

General Motors Corporation made its annual report last week, made it with a lack of ostentation that its stupendous motor production, motor sales and profits belied. During the year it made and had sold at retail 827,056 motor cars and trucks, 95,775 or 13% more than in any other year. During last October alone, usually a dead month for motor sales, it made and sold to dealers 96,364 cars, a monthly record. The year's net sales aggregated $734,592,592, against $568,007,459 in 1924 and $698,038,947 in 1923, the previous high year. Current and working assets totaled $290,869,088, current liabilities $109,042,207, leaving a net working capital of $181,826,881.

General Motors Corporation is the result of the organizing genius of William Crapo Durant, who took control in 1915 (TIME, Feb. 1) and lost it in 1920. In 1918 the du Pont interests invested heavily (27.6%, increased to 36% in 1924) in the corporation. Since 1920 they have directed its policies, keep their holdings in the General Motors Securities Co. Pierre Samuel du Pont is Chairman of the General Motors Board. Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr., since 1923 has been President of the Corporation.

Mr. Sloan is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology man. After he graduated, in 1895, John Hyatt asked him to come to Michigan to perfect some machinery. Together they made billiard balls. Mr. Sloan became President and General Manager of the Hyatt Roller Bearing Co.; kept the positions for 15 years. In 1916 he became President of the United Motors Corp.; in 1919 Vice President of General Motors. Four years later he was elected President.

Now stockholders can point to the following subsidiary and allied companies, which comprise practically a vertical union, except for the not obvious control of raw materials :

PASSENGER & COMMERCIAL CAR GROUP

Armstrong Spring Div. Lancaster Steel Prod. Corp. Brown-Lipe-Chapin Muncie Products Div. Dayton Eng'ing Labs. New Departure Mfg. Delco-Light Co. Co. Harrison Radiator Remy Electric Div. Corp. G. M. Truck Div. Saginaw Products (now Yellow T. & Div. C. Mfg. Co.) Hyatt Bearings Div. Co. Saginaw Mall. Iron Inland Mfg. Co. Jaxon Steel Prod. United Motors Serv. Corp. Inc.

AFFILIATED GROUP A. C. Spark Plug Ethyl Gasoline Corp. Co. Fisher Body Corp.

EXPORT AND OVERSEAS GROUP

G. M. Export Co., S. A., Antwerp. N. Y. G. M. Argentina G. M., Ltd., London S. A., Buenos G. M. International Aires A/S Copenhagen Delco-Remy & Hyatt, G. M. Continental Ltd., London. G. M. of Brazil Overseas Motor Serv S. A., Sao Paulo ice Corp., N. Y. MISCELLANEOUS GROUP Bristol Realty Co. G. M. Research Corp. G. M. Acceptance Ltd. Modern Dwellings, Corp. General Exchange Modern Corp. Housing Corp. New Departure Real G. M. Building Corp. ty Corp. Manufacturing plants are at: Lancaster. Pa. Lansing, Mich. Blairsville, Pa. Pontiac, Mich. Bristol, Conn. Saginaw, Brooklyn, N. Mich. Y. Broadbrook, Conn. Buffalo, N. Y. Hartford, Conn. Lockport, N. Y. Meriden, Conn. Syracuse, N. Y. West Hartford, Conn. Tarrytown, N. Y. Ottawa, Ill. St. Louis, Mo. Anderson, Ind. Oakland, Cal. Muncie, Ind. Memphis, Tenn. Bloomfield, N. J. Janesville, Wis. Newark, N. J. Waukesha, Wis. Cincinnati, Ohio Ashawa, Ont., Can. Cleveland. Ohio Walkersville, Ont., Dayton, Ohio Can. Toledo, Ohio Birmingham, Eng. Bay City, Mich. London, Eng. Detroit, Mich. Copenhagen, Den. Flint, Mich. Port Wellington, Elizabeth. N. S. Z.* A.* Jackson, Mich.

The definite policy of the corporation, especially during the last year, has been to keep dealers well supplied yet not overstocked, to make installment purchases convenient to the buyers and to exploit the foreign fields.

At the close of the year dealers and distributors had on hand only a moderate number of cars, just enough to meet the current retail demands. Practically a new line of cars, especially closed models, were put out as of Aug. 1. Economies of production and the assembling of advantageous construction elements into the cars stimulated the buying of them, so that in five months 364,824 cars and trucks were offered as against 215,424 during the same period the year before, an increase of 69%, and one of 41% over the retail sales of the same months of 1923.

General Motors Acceptance Corp. financed the time payments on cars, and profited on its own account. It increased its capital and surplus during the year to $16,875,000.

But perhaps the most important policy of the controlling corporation was its overseas activities. One will recall how James Augustine Farrell, now President of the U. S. Steel Corp., made U. S. steel so world-powerful by going after the foreign markets (TIME, Feb. 15). He created new demands abroad and thereby caused the expansion of U. S. production. Now General Motors is doing much the same thing. Last year's export sales totaled 100,894 units (64,845 in 1924). Their wholesale value was $77,109,696 ($50,929,322 in 1924 and $19,875,015 in 1922). Manufacturing, assembling and distributing points were detailed above.

The truck business was turned over in 1925 to the Yellow Truck & Coach Mfg. Co., a consolidation of the Yellow Cab Mfg. Co. and the $16,000,000 truck division of General Motors. Of the new company, General Motors retained all of the 600,000 shares of $10 Class B stock of Yellow Cab shared pro rata in the 150,000 shares of the new 7% preferred. The first new product of the new company is the "Big Brute" truck now on sale, which looks as sturdy, as ponderous, as irresistible as a dinosaur.

*Inaugurated in 1925, Last year, too, merchandizing and stocking plants were instituted at Malanga and Bilbao, Spain; Hamburg, Germany; and Le Havre, France. Other like ones are projected for the coming year.