Growing Consolidation - Toledo Industry in the 1950s
During the 1950s many of Toledo's industries underwent consolidations, mergers, and expansion. In 1953, Willys-Overland Motors Inc.,
still one of Toledo's industrial leaders as its trademark defense product - the jeep was becoming increasingly popular
domestically, was sold to the Kaiser-Frazer corporation for $62 million dollars, becoming the Willys Motor company.
Doehler-Jarvis, a parts manufacturer, merged with the National Lead Company in 1953 as well. In 1957 two of Toledo's oldest
industries, the Haughton Elevator company and the Toledo Scale Company merged.
These mergers were fueled by a number of factors. First, increasingly sophisticated travel methods made it possible for goods to be
manufactured in one area and cheaply shipped to another. This increased the importance of economies of scale - if you can produce
large numbers of a product in a uniform manner you can produce it cheaper and ship it cheaper than your competitors. In order to
remain competitive large multi-national corporations began to form, joining together older, more traditional businesses. These
larger corporations began to compete on a national and international scale. Another reason for these conglomerations among the
manufacturing sector was ever increasing technological change. New machines had to be purchased at an ever increasing rate in
order to stay competitive with other plants. In order to afford these purchases, larger corporations with larger profit margins
were necessary.
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I-280 Construction Photo
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