Accubuilt, Inc. - Origins

Origins

Accubuilt was a corporate title created at the beginning of the 21st century to represent a number of brands with origins in the 19th century. The process by which the handful of brands came together under one umbrella entity occurred over decades, engendered by acquisitions and mergers during the 1980s and 1990s that ultimately created the largest and oldest manufacturer of funeral coaches in the United States. At the core of the organization that adopted the Accubuilt name in 2000 were two companies, Sayers & Scovill (S&S) and Superior Coach Co., each regarded as pioneers in the business of manufacturing vehicles designed for, as the April 2001 issue of Automotive Manufacturing & Production noted, the "last ride."

Of the two main pillars of Accubuilt, S&S was established first, a firm founded by William Sayers and A.R. Scovill in 1876. The founders, who christened their enterprise the Sayers & Scovill Coach Company, began making horse-drawn hearses in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area, starting what became, by the beginning of the 21st century, the oldest continuously operating funeral coach manufacturer in the United States. The company distinguished itself early in its development by demonstrating a high standard of craftsmanship. The carriages, sometimes constructed with glass side panels, bore ornate carvings on supporting wood structures, reflecting the public's desire for elegance and a certain sort of pageantry in a funeral procession. As time passed, preferences with respect to funeral ceremonies and attendant proceedings changed. Funerals became more staid affairs, and funeral coaches correspondingly became more somber in design. As with any business, S&S's longevity depended on its ability to adapt to changing market conditions and emerging trends, something the company would have to do many times during its development. The company's greatest test in this regard occurred during the early 20th century. The invention of the internal combustion engine revolutionized the funeral-carriage trade, making S&S's signature horse-drawn carriages relics of an era gone by. (The first commercially available automobile hearse was introduced in 1909 by another Ohio-based company, Cincinnati's Crane & Breed). S&S successfully adapted to the profound change that swept throughout its industry, becoming one of the few funeral coach companies to make the transition from carriages to motor-powered vehicles without surrendering its standing in the marketplace.

As S&S quickly learned the craft of converting automobiles to hearses, the story of another funeral coach manufacturer was just beginning. In 1909, The Garford Motor Truck Company was established. An Ohio-based company as well, Garford Truck was formed in a small town 30 miles outside Cleveland named Elyria, where it began manufacturing heavy trucks. The company did well, enjoying sufficient demand for its trucks to require a substantially larger manufacturing facility. In 1925, the company moved its operations to Lima, Ohio, where it occupied a new plant housing both its manufacturing operations and its administrative offices. The move to Lima marked a turning point in the company's history, occurring at the same time Garford changed its name to The Superior Body Company and diversified, introducing a line of hearse and ambulance bodies. (Because they were the only ones with vehicles long enough to carry someone in a recumbent position, funeral homes were often the sole providers of ambulance service). Although the company had built its business on manufacturing heavy trucks, the line of hearses became its mainstay business line not long after the move to Lima, when the Superior brand became one of the most well-regarded names in the funeral coach industry.

Superior, like S&S, was in the business of converting vehicles, not making them. Both companies were involved in producing what later became known as professional cars: hearses, flower cars, rescue cares, service cars, ambulances, limousines, and vehicles built to combine two or more of these functions. Professional cars were custom-bodied vehicles based on passenger car styling, entirely made by hand except for the commercial chassis and front and rear clips. Both Superior and S&S relied on established car manufacturers to provide the framework for their conversion efforts, purchasing chassis that formed the basis of their funeral coaches. Initially, Superior built its hearses and ambulances on the Studebaker chassis, adding chassis built by Pontiac in 1936. The company changed its name to The Superior Coach Company in 1940, inaugurating a decade that would see it build hearses styled on Cadillac, LaSalle, Chrysler, DeSoto, and Dodge chassis. During this period, S&S introduced several distinctive models, bringing back the carved pillars of the late 19th century with the production of the "Art Carved" hearse in 1929. In 1938, the company introduced the industry's first victoria-style hearse, a model equipped with a heavily padded leather roof and a blind quarter panel decorated by S-shaped irons reminiscent of horse-drawn carriages of the late 19th century.

During the post-World War II era, as Superior and S&S affirmed their reputations in the funeral-car industry, both companies were acquired by other companies. Superior became part of the Sheller-Globe Corporation. S&S was purchased by Hess & Eisenhardt Company. The two companies were brought together when an entrepreneur and veteran of the limousine industry, Tom Earnhart, decided to acquire two of the most venerated brands in the business. In 1981, Earnhart acquired Superior from Sheller-Globe and later that year purchased S&S from Hess & Eisenhardt, forming a new company S&S/Superior of Ohio, Inc. to oversee the further development of the two businesses. Manufacturing operations were consolidated at Superior's plant in Lima, which had been expanded 30 years earlier.

The next eventful chapter in the development of Superior and S&S occurred during the 1990s. In 1995, a new plant in Lima was constructed, becoming the state-of-the-art facility where funeral coaches built on Cadillac, Lincoln, and Ford chassis were constructed. The establishment of the new plant, which blended hand-building and mass-production techniques, represented the modern symbol of a nearly 120-year-old organization, one that began to exhibit a desire to increase its opportunities for growth after it gained new owners. In 1996, PNC Equity Management, a part of the Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank, acquired a controlling stake in S&S/Superior. The combined factors of having a new equity partner and a need to exploit the new manufacturing plant to its fullest led to two important acquisitions several years later, purchases that joined four old rivals in the funeral coach industry.