Vrystaatse Motorwerkt

Vrystaatse Motorwerkt Besloten Maatskappy (VMBM), (English: Freestate Motorworks Private Limited Company) is Orange Free State's state owned car manufacturing company, founded in 1906 in Kroonstad, Orange Free State. The company was initially founded by Jon and Laars van der Bildt, engineer brothers who designed their first own truck in 1906 in Kroonstad. Powered by a petrol engine and a two-speed gearbox the "rail-less locomotive" made it quickly into the national newspapers. A year later, the first order was placed for a commercial vehicle. By 1911, the company had developed a 2-ton truck, however, though it won a production award in 1909, the new range was a financial disaster for the company, failing to attract more than a handful of orders. However the company had become of interest for the government and it offered to buy a 40% share of it, thus allowing the company to expand also to locomotive industry. From 1910's to 1940's the company's output were being diverted to the mining industry's needs. In the 1940's the VMBM also manufactured military vehicles for the Orange Free State Defence Forces. In 1959 the military vehicle manufacturing division was subsidised and sold to the government-supported weapon-producing conglomerate Milkryg. Since 1950's the company has produced licensed versions of different Ford models and in 1986 introduced a further range of Mazda and Opel models.