History
The company originated in Brussels, Belgium in 1870, as Carrosserie Vanden Plas founded by Guillaume van den Plas and his three sons, Antoine, Henri and Willy. In 1884, the business moved from Brussels to Antwerp where horse-drawn carriages were produced. With the increase in business, another branch was opened in Brussels again in 1890. By 1900, the company worked with De Dion Bouton, Berlier, Germain, Packard. By 1908, Vanden Plas had a workforce of 400 men producing 300 special bodies a year and this soon increased to over 750.
The company first appeared in the United Kingdom in 1906 when Métallurgique cars were imported with Vanden Plas coachwork. In 1913 the first Vanden Plas company in England was established by Warwick Wright (now Peugeot dealers), building bodies under license from Vanden Plas.
During World War I the company became involved in aircraft production and was bought by Aircraft Manufacturing Company based at Hendon, London. In 1917 a new company, Vanden Plas (1917) Ltd., was formed. The company seems to have struggled to get back into coachbuilding and in 1922 went into receivership. The exclusive UK rights purchase seems also to have gone as in the early 1920s the Belgian firm was exhibiting at the London Motor Show alongside the British company. In 1923 the rights to the name and the goodwill were purchased by the Fox brothers and formed Vanden Plas (England) 1923 Limited was formed. The company moved from Hendon to Kingsbury and built on the contacts that had been made with Bentley. Between 1924 and 1931, when Bentley failed, Vanden Plas built the bodies for over 700 of their chassis.
In the 1930s the company became less dependent on one car maker and supplied coachwork to such as Alvis, Armstrong Siddeley, Bentley, Daimler, Lagonda and Rolls-Royce. The company also updated its production methods and took to making small batches of similar bodies. With the outbreak of war in 1939 the company returned to aircraft work, and coachbuilding stopped. During the War the company manufactured the wooden framework for the De Havilland Mosquito, one of the most successful aircraft of WWII. After the war the company continued its association with De Havilland and manufactured parts for the DH Vampire jet fighter.
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