THE factory that produces the Mini, the quintessential British car, is in line to become the second-biggest producer in the UK by 2007 after its German owner BMW gave it a £100 million boost yesterday.
In a move aimed at satiating strong demand, for the first time BMW has not ruled out making the car overseas as well as at the factory near Oxford.
Until now BMW, which also owns Rolls-Royce cars at Goodwood, has said that the Mini would be made only in Britain because of its “Britishness”. But with sales increasing in the Far East and a greater than expected general demand, Norbert Reithofer, BMW’s head of production, said: “At the moment we have no plans to produce Minis anywhere else, and we have just made a substantial investment in Oxford, but we are in a dynamic industry and who knows, in three years or so . . . we will have to wait and see.”
Next month the Mini will be launched in Korea.
The expansion of the Mini operations near Oxford will include a new body production plant and modernisation of the paint shop facilities. The development will boost Mini production by 20 per cent to about 230,000 cars a year by 2007, but BMW has tended to underestimate output, and sources at the plant suggest that the capacity could reach 300,000.
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If it were to achieve such output, the Mini factory would be second to Nissan’s Sunderland plant in terms of production output in the UK. The Nissan plant makes 320,000 units but has a capacity of 400,000.
When the Mini was launched, BMW initially predicted that it would sell 80,000 a year and then revised this to 100,000. To boost production to its present level of 190,000 it has implemented flexible working practices among its 4,500 employees. The factory works three shifts and runs seven days a week at 134 hours a week. Even with the factory working around the clock, there is an average three-month waiting list for a Mini.Yesterday’s investment will also create 200 jobs.
BMW kept the Mini five years ago when it disposed of the Rover group to a local consortium of business people for a nominal £10 and sold Land Rover to Ford for £2 billion. Since then it has invested £380 million in Oxford, including yesterday’s cash injection.
Increased output of the Mini will also help to boost production of engines at BMW’s Hams Hall engine plant near Birmingham, which will produce Mini engines. At present they are largely produced by a BMW factory in Brazil.