Vickers-AWD
Vickers-AWD was a subsidiary of shipbuilding, defense and engineering group Vickers which was part nationalized and part privatized in the 1970s during a series of restructuring of the post WWII defense and shipbuilding industry. The company was active from 1962 to 1971, when it was sold off and renamed as Crane Travellers Ltd, under the control of the 600 Group who owned other mechanical and steelworking companies all over the UK.
In 1962 Vickers acquired AWD and the firm was renamed Vickers-AWD at the time Mr Andrews carried on importing and assembling Michigan models. Vickers-AWD took over the truck side of the business and moved to Wiltshire to a bigger factory. Here the new firm developed the V-Series cranecarriers mostly made for several major British crane builders except for Coles Cranes Limited who manufactured their own full model range entirely.
Then in 1968 Vickers AWD Cranecarrier models moved to Wolverhampton to produce smaller cranecarriers and other crane vehicles all becoming an instant success as they came fitted with the latest crane body units and auxiliary equipment supplied by any crane builder such as Jones and Smith. The giant George Cohen Group 600 empire who owned Jones Cranes in the 1960s and 1970s acquired Vickers-AWD who moved all vehicle manufacturing to a new factory at Leeds under the new brand name of Crane Travellers Limited who ceased all offroad truck production soon after.
