The main company, Clayton Shuttleworth, which was producing agricultural machinery, continued to operate from the Stamp End Works.
Both companies found it very difficult to adapt to the post war economic situation and by 1923 Clayton and Shuttleworth's Eastern European trade had shrunk to 6% of its pre-War level.
Shareholders were promised that the turnover would be £1.5 million a year and the buildings and equipment, which had been largely purchased with Government funding during the war, was valued at £696,000, and was of the most modern type.
It was noted that the sale of steam motor vehicles was likely to be very successful and that over 1,000 had been manufactured since 1912 and that Abbey Works was already equipped for railway carriage and rolling stock production, for which there was a worldwide demand.
In September 1926 the Sheffield Daily Telegraph stated that the report of Clayton Wagons, Ltd., is on the whole very satisfactory, especially in view of the past experience of the company.
The fact that profit of over £20,700 was made, compared with £728 in 1925, is clear proof that with normal conditions existing in the industrial field, further progress is assured.
Indeed, as the directors state, up to the last two months of the financial year ending in June, there was marked improvement, and but for the strike period the profit would undoubtedly have been better still.