The Rootes Group factory just outside the city at Ryton had been taken over by American carmaker Chrysler in 1964, which saw the company integrated with the French carmaker Simca. The company was sold to Peugeot in 1978 and the Talbot brand was introduced on the former Chrysler and Simca badged cars. Sales of the Ryton-built cars slumped during the early 1980s, but a few uncertain years the plant's future was secured when Peugeot decided to phase out the Talbot brand in the mid 1980s and built its own cars there.