BMW may become the saviour of Mitsubishi Motor Corporation’s doomed Nedcar plant at Born in the Netherlands, confirming on Monday that contract assembly discussions are taking place. A Dutch government minister had said earlier talks had started.
Announcing a further GBP250m spend on its three UK plants, BMW said: “The extra volume for the growth strategy of the Mini brand and the complexity of new model lines means that additional production capacity for Mini sales beyond Oxford’s maximum capacity is needed in the medium term and the company is now considering how to achieve this.”
Go deeper with GlobalData
“Our preferred option is to establish a contract manufacturer as a satellite production as close to our UK operations as possible, at the Nedcar plant in The Netherlands, with whom BMW is in discussions.” BMW board member Harald Krueger said.
“Oxford will provide special Mini production expertise for any new operation, particularly in the areas of dealing with the high complexity and customer individuality which Mini demands and in operating state of the art, multi-model production lines. Just as Munich is the centre of the BMW world, Oxford is and will remain the home and the heart of Mini.”
BMW already contracts out Countryman assembly to Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria.
The company said it would spend the additional GBP250m on its UK manufacturing operations by the end of 2015 at its plant in Oxford, steel body pressings operation at Swindon and engine plant at Hams Hall near Birmingham.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalData“This is to support the company’s international growth strategy for the Mini brand with increasing volumes and up to 10 different models in the new line-up in the mid-term. It comes on top of the GBP500m UK investment announced in June 2011 and means additional job security for the 5,500 UK [staff] working in the UK Mini production network,” BMW said.
“A year ago we announced a further investment of GBP500m in our UK production network by 2014 and today we are announcing an additional GBP250m, taking us through to 2015. This brings the total to GBP1.75bn since 2000,” said Krueger.
“Over the last 11 years, Mini has been a unique global success and the BMW Group has even greater plans for the future development of the brand. Plant Oxford has played a major role in this with cars being exported to over 100 countries around the world. This additional investment is great news for all our employees in the UK and shows the BMW Group’s commitment to Britain as a vital manufacturing base for us.”
As the volume and variety of the Mini model line-up grows, there will be additional production requirements for engines and body panels from the group’s specialist UK facilities in Hams Hall and Swindon. Part of the new investment is to develop specific production facilities to meet these requirements.
