Montague Napier bought the business from the executors of his father's estate in 1895, and diversified into producing machine tools for the cycle industry.

Following a meeting with businessman and racing driver Selwyn Edge in 1899 Napier diversified into automobile manufacturer, and for a time his company was the leading supplier of luxury cars in the British market.

[1] He was born on 14 April 1870 at 68 York Road, Lambeth, London, the youngest of the four sons of James Murdoch Napier and his wife, Fanny Jemima, née Mackenzie.

The business diversified unto making coin-weighing machines for the Royal Mint, but by the time of James Murdoch Napier's death in 1895 it was in decline.

[6] Napier's health had broken down by 1915, probably as a result of cancer, and he moved to the south of France from where he continued working as a consultant to his company.

[7] In 1903 he had married school governess Alice Caroline Mary, née Paterson, with whom he had two sons and two daughters; the couple were legally separated in 1922.