A General Motors company that designs, builds, and sells vehicles in Australasia. Holden was founded in 1856 as a saddlery manufacturer in Port Adelaide, South Australia. In 1908 it moved into the automotive field, and in 1931 became a subsidiary of the US-based General Motors. In 1926 Holden New Zealand was incorporated as a company, at which time an assembly plant opened in Petone, Wellington. Another assembly plant opened in Trentham, Wellington, in 1967, bringing the total area of property owned by Holden in the Hutt Valley to 117 acres. The closure of the Petone assembly plant in 1984 and the decision in 1990 to phase out local assembly of passenger cars in New Zealand resulted in a significant rise in unemployment in the Hutt Valley at a time of peak unemployment in New Zealand generally as a result of the sharemarket crash of 1987 and global downturn between 1991–2. Since 1994 Holden New Zealand Ltd has been the sales subsidiary for General Motors in New Zealand. G. M. Holden’s headquarters is in Port Melbourne, Victoria. All Australian-built Holden vehicles are manufactured at Elizabeth, South Australia.