The Winnipeg and Derby were the brainchild of entrepreneur Louis Arsenault, and were an early example of "badge engineering", where an existing model was manufactured under a different name to a different market from the original. The Winnipeg was based in the city of the same name, with the first Winnipeg in 1921 being a re-badged Hatfield, originating in Sydney, NY. The motto of the Winnipeg was "Good As The Wheat". Only one car was rebadged, with the company trying again in 1923. Instead of rebadging, the company bought enough parts from the George W Davis Motor Car Co of Richmond, IN to assemble 11 cars, before the venture closed down.
After the failure of the Winnipeg, Arsenault decided to try again, but this time he decided to sell another badge-engineered car, like the original Winnipeg, instead of importing parts and building cars. The last batch of Winnipegs were based on the Davis, and Arsenault continued the connection with the Richmond, IN company by importing complete Davis cars, changing the nameplates to Derby, and adding Derby-labelled tyre covers. Sedan, tourer and roadster models were offered using the Davis' 6-cylinder Continental engine. It is believed that approximately 50 Derbys were built before the venture failed. Conversion of the Davis cars took place in the former Marshall tractor plant at Saskatoon, Sasketchawan.
No Winnipegs are known to exist, while one restored Derby exists.
Saskatoon resident Cec Wheaton visited the abandoned factory shortly after it closed as a teenager, and gave this description for the Saskatchewan Western Development Museum:
"Along the north wall of the factory were about a dozen Derby car frames, stacked on end and painted black. The boys ventured upstairs, where they found a scene that Wheaton describes as eerie and sad. The Derby company board room was located on the second floor of the factory. “There was a huge table,” Wheaton says.
Papers were stacked neatly around the table as if waiting for board members to return. “It looked like they just got up from the meeting, and left,” he says. The stacks of papers included letters from Saskatchewan people who had invested in the company and were anxious for word on their savings. “I remember one letter from a widow who had invested all her money in the company,” Wheaton says. “She was writing to say that she was expecting dividends and hadn’t received any.”
[Authors note: The Derby was a badge-engineered car, so the presence of separate chassis is confusing. Maybe Cec Wheaton had actually visited the Winnipeg factory, where parts were assembled into complete vehicles?]
Bibliography:
Nick Georgano, "Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile", Stationary Office, London, 2000, p. 424 & 1754
"The Derby: Pride of the Prairies", wheels.ca
Linda Aksomitis "The Rare Derby Car Is About to Make a Comeback in Saskatoon at the Western Development Museum", guide2travel.ca
Noelle Grosse "Derby represented brief career of automaker", Montgomery Place Community Association, July 2015
Jeremy Warren "It's So Rare Its Worthless', Saskatoon Star Phoenix, 28 March 2013, page 1
