IV. The Greenhill Era -- "As an employee of the Acklin Stamping Company...you are much the same as a member of a large family, working together for the success and happiness of the family group." --New Employee Procedure Manual 1947.

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.