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Commer

The Commercial Car Company was originally founded at Lavender Hill, South London in 1905 for the manufacture of commercial vehicles, but almost immediately a new factory was built at Biscot Road, Luton. By the time World War II ended they had 40 years of unrivalled experience in this field.
They were one of the first British motor firms to enter the export market, and built many 'out of the ordinary' vehicles. It is on record that among its designs was a commercial vehicle with straked wheels for use in south America, and another with power-loading gear for New Zealand, an also another with steel tyres for hauling oil drums in Siberia Russia.
Some 3.000 trucks were supplied to the War Office during WW I.
In 1926 this Company became actively linked with Humber Ltd.. and the name was changed to Commer. Just 2 years later both were absorbed into the Rootes Group.
After WW II Commer laid down a program for a completely new range from 8cwt vans to 12 ton petrol or diesel-engined commercial vehicles, and introduced its 1500 car range in 1960, such as the Cob-2 estate. It had then one of the widest ranges of any commercial vehicle manufacturer in the world.
In 1952 Commer had outgrown it´s Biscot Road plant, and moved to a new factory in Dunstable, west of Luton.
When Rootes acquired Humber, that included Commer, and within this large motoring group the Commer badged vehicles were all vans an trucks only. When Rootes faded away by 1992 the Commer brand did also, although some of their vehicles are still found as far away as Australia.