PACCAR Financial history

Pigott and his friend Judge E. M. Wilson incorporated the Seattle Steel Company on November 23, 1903.

The history of PACCAR began with a steel foundry established in Bellevue, Washington (near Seattle) in 1904.

In 1905 the company began production of "bunks," the steel clasps used to secure logs to railroad flat cars.

Seattle Car grew quickly, despite a fire on August 12, 1907, that destroyed the Duwamish facility, and despite a 1907 bank panic that resulted in a string of cancelled orders.

The company built a new factory in Renton and by 1909 was filling larger orders than ever before.

In 1911 the name was changed to Seattle Car and Foundry Company.

Pacific Coast Steel Co. open hearth furnace, Youngstown (West Seattle), 1914

On July 1, 1917, Seattle Car and Foundry merged with its only West Coast competitor, Twohy Brothers of Portland, Oregon, owned by Judge John Twohy and James F. Twohy.

By 1920, the company had built more than 7,000 logging cars (valued at some $10 million). The firm specialized in innovating designs that fit the particular hauling situation of the logging customer.

Kenworth had been producing trucks in Seattle since its incorporation in 1923.

In 1924, William Pigott sold control of the Company to American Car and Foundry Company.

William Pigott Sr. had died on July 19, 1929.

In 1930, despite the stock market crash, earnings rose, but as the Great Depression deepened, Pacific Car and Foundry soon became one of Seattle’s most depressed businesses.

In May 1931 Pacific Car acquired the Arrow Pump Company and plants belonging to the Bacon & Matheson Drop Forge Company.

In 1934, Paul Pigott, son of the founder, acquired a major interest in the Company from American Car and Foundry Company.

Production of the company's refrigerator cars was highly profitable despite continuing poor economic conditions, generating enough surplus capital to permit the acquisition in 1936 of Heisers Incorporated, a manufacturer of motor buses.

In 1940, company sales were up by nearly 50 percent.

Beginning in spring 1942 the company also built Sherman M4-A1 tanks for the United States Army.

Following a reorganization in 1943, the company retired its common stock, and compensated stockholders with new preferred shares.

Pacific Car and Foundry bought the business in 1944.

In 1945, the Company entered the heavy-duty truck market in 1945 with its first major acquisition, Kenworth Motor Truck Company of Seattle.

In 1946, it became a division of Pacific Car.

In 1953 Pacific Car & Foundry bought the Seattle facilities of the Commercial Ship Repair Company.

Kenworth, which opened a Canadian division in 1956, was Pacific Car’s largest, fastest growing concern.

In 1958, Pacific Car and Foundry expanded its heavy-duty truck capability with the purchase of Peterbilt Motors Company.

Also in 1960, Carco Acceptance Corporation, currently PACCAR Financial Corp., was launched to facilitate domestic sales of trucks.

When Paul Pigott died in 1961, Robert O'Brien was named to succeed him as president of the company.

In 1965 Robert O'Brien was promoted to chairman of the board and was replaced as president by Charles Pigott, grandson of the founder.

Kenworth moved into Mexico with 49 percent participation in an affiliate company, Kenworth Mexicana S.A. de C.V., and in 1966 PACCAR entered the Australian truck market with the establishment of a Kenworth Truck assembly plant near Melbourne.

Pacific Car purchased a Canadian producer of automotive transmissions and industrial winches called Gearmatic and in early 1967 completed its acquisition of Sicard Incorporated, a manufacturer of snow removal equipment and airport vehicles.

Workers at all three Pacific Car plants in Seattle staged a crippling labor strike from April 5 to July 22, 1968.

In November 1971 Pacific Car & Foundry created a holding company, incorporated in Delaware, called PACCAR Incorporated.

Believing “Pacific Car and Foundry Company” no longer accurately reflected the Company’s products and activities, directors and shareholders voted to adopt PACCAR Inc as its new name in 1972.

In 1973, two major divisions of PACCAR were founded.

Demand for higher quality Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks, however, was not seriously affected and production losses during 1974 were due more to the reoccurrence of strikes than to poor market conditions.

In 1975, it bought the International Car Company of Kenton, Ohio, a caboose manufacturer.

In August 1978, PACCAR received an order from the People's Republic of China worth $3 million for 22 Kenworth trucks.

In 1980, PACCAR Leasing Corporation was formed to offer full-service leasing and rental programs through PACCAR’s dealer network.

In 1981, the Company became a European truck manufacturer with the acquisition of Foden Trucks in Sandbach, U.K.

PACCAR’s trucks came with the best warranty in the industry, and many trucking firms refurbishing their fleets with more efficient vehicles turned to PACCAR. In 1984 PACCAR posted record sales: $2.25 billion, $125 million of which were profits.

PACCAR was also interested in acquiring the Bell Helicopter division of Textron, a unit it first attempted to purchase in 1985.

Plagued by overcapacity, PACCAR was forced to close a Kenworth plant in Kansas City in April 1986 and a Peterbilt plant in Newark, California, the following October.

PACCAR continued to experiment in new markets and in early 1987 concluded an agreement with Volkswagen do Brasil to import Class 7 trucks (26,001- to 33,000-pound gross vehicle weight) for sale in the United States.

In 1988 PACCAR bought Grand Auto, Inc., another auto parts and accessories retailer, and folded the new stores into the PACCAR Automotive subsidiary.

In 1989, PACCAR sold Wagner Mining Equipment Company.

PACCAR Automotive also cut back its operations in 1991 when it abandoned its wholesale auto parts sales to focus on its retail outlets.

PACCAR's finances improved slightly in 1992, when profits rose to $65 million.

The prosperity encouraged expansion, and in 1993 PACCAR acquired a line of winches from heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar.

Robert Stovall, in a 1994 Financial World article, named PACCAR "the premier long-term investment in the heavy hauling business."

Profits rose commensurately, reaching $253 million in 1995.

In 1996 industrywide truck sales were down 25 percent from the year before.

The acquisitions helped push PACCAR's revenues to $6.5 billion in 1997.

Earnings from retail automotive parts rose, and the company boasted 143 A1's Auto and Grand Auto stores by 1998.

DAF Trucks are manufactured in the Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil and UK. It has a dealer network in nearly 2000 locations, where it has been selling in more than 100 countries and at present they are trying to expand their network to Asia as well.

Their products are designed to reduce the company’s impact on environment by presenting the Six Sigma honor in the year 2013 by reducing the water consumption by 41%, which is equal to filling 18 Olympic size swimming pools.