Dietrich Inc. was an American
coachbuilder
A coachbuilder or body-maker is someone who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles.Construction has always been a skilled trade requiring a relatively lightweight product with sufficient strength. The manufacture of necessarily ...
founded in 1925 by Raymond H. Dietrich (1894–1980), co-founder of
LeBaron Incorporated
LeBaron Incorporated (originally LeBaron, Carrossiers Inc.) was an American design business from 1920 and also a coachbuilder from 1924 until 1953.
LeBaron was one of the many prominent coachbuilders in the 1920s to provide bodies for luxury ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
. He was a close friend to
Edsel Ford
Edsel Bryant Ford (November 6, 1893 – May 26, 1943) was an American business executive and philanthropist who was the son of pioneering industrialist Henry Ford and his wife, Clara Jane Bryant Ford. He was the president of Ford Motor Company f ...
who supported him by talking the owner of the
J W Murray Manufacturing Co into partly financing the venture. Murray was itself a vendor of standard bodies to the
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobiles ...
, and hoped for an in-house source for designing and building custom bodies for luxury cars. Dietrich himself held 50% of the
stock
In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...
.
Dietrich, Inc. did substantial styling work for standard bodies for
Packard,
Franklin, and
Erskine
Erskine (, sco, Erskin, gd, Arasgain) is a town in the council area of Renfrewshire, and historic county of the same name, situated in the West Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies on the southern bank of the River Clyde, providing the l ...
, a corporate make of