Stonefield Vehicles

Jim McKelvie, who had been instrumental in bringing Volvo trucks to Britain, set up Stonefield Developments to build prototypes of a purpose-built cross-country vehicle; Norman Watson, designer of the Ailsa bus, drew its space-frame chassis and prototypes were running by the end of 1974. The Scottish Development Agency invested £1 million for a 49 per cent holding in 1977, and the factory in the former Scottish Aviation works at Caponacre, Cumnock was launched on 17 February 1977. McKelvie died in August 1977; after an independent report the agency took control on 6 February 1978 and renamed the company Stonefield Vehicles Ltd. Full-scale production began in May 1978 and a second factory doubled the site to 9,000 square metres in 1979.

The truck passed an eighteen-month Ministry of Defence appraisal and was endorsed as a 105 mm Light Gun tractor on 22 August 1979, but orders did not follow: fewer than 100 had been sold by November 1980, against a break-even of 700 to 900 a year. After the 1979 election the agency was told to find a private partner; Tozer, Kemsley and Millbourn took a £120,000 option and declined to exercise it, and a receiver was appointed at the end of July 1980. Public funds invested came to about £5 million. Gomba Holdings bought the business in March 1981.