Edward Holden

Sir Edward Wheewall Holden (14 August 1885 – 17 June 1947) was an Australian industrialist who took his family carriage and saddlery business, Holden & Frost, into a partnership with General Motors to create Australia's first automobile manufacturer, General Motors-Holden's Ltd.

Edward Holden was born at College Town (now St. Peters), the son of saddler and carriage-maker Henry James Holden (1859–1926) and his wife Mary Ann (née Wheewall). He was educated at Prince Alfred College and the University of Adelaide, where he graduated with a B.Sc. in 1905 and joined the family firm Holden & Frost.

Edward saw the necessity for the firm to diversify into motor vehicles, initially maintaining and repairing (imported) automobile bodies then building motorcycle sidecars in a shed at the rear of the firm's Grenfell Street premises.

In 1917 the Australian Government introduced policies to restrict importation of fully manufactured motor cars to encourage the country's nascent automotive body building industry. Holden developed a relationship with America's General Motors (as Adelaide contemporary T. J. Richards did with Chrysler) to fit bodies to imported chassis. In 1919 Edward (as managing director) and his father founded a company Holden's Motor Body Builders with a factory at 400 King William Street later occupied by A. G. Healing Ltd. In 1923, following the signing of an exclusive agreement in Detroit with General Motors by Edward Holden, a new factory was set up at 879–895 Port Road, Cheltenham, employing the latest in production line technology. Automated mass-production techniques increased productivity spectacularly.

Edward Holden introduced to the business new standards of scientific management, cost accounting and production control. In close association with General Motors Export Co., Holdens established a dominant market position throughout mainland Australia.

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