BMW Group to invest £500 million in the UK plants
BMW Group announced yesterday within a meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron at Downing Street that they plans to invest £500 million in the UK production network, an investment scheduled to gradually materialize over the next three years. The new £500 million investment will add to the existing money channeled to the UK production totalizing more than £1.5 billion. This decision of sending more money to the UK facilities wants to boost the production of the next generation MINI models.
BMW Group invests more in the UK production
According to BMW, a total of over 5,000 jobs will be safeguarded in the UK as the main purpose of this £500 million investment is to create new facilities and provide additional equipment for MINI’s Oxford plant. The Hams Hall engine plant near Birmingham as well as the pressings plant in Swindon will also provide a large number of new jobs due to this investment.
According to the same official source, the British subsidiary of the German company produced around 2 million MINI vehicles at the Plant Oxford since 2001, around 1,5 million units being delivered to more than 90 countries. MINI is currently the third-largest manufacturer in the UK with 17% of national car production. This means that the British manufacturer sold 216,302 vehicles last year to more than 90 markets worldwide, as mentioned above.
BMW Group invests more in the UK production
Prime Minister David Cameron said: “I welcome this major investment by BMW Group in UK manufacturing. The production and export of iconic British cars like the MINI is making a real contribution to the rebalancing of the economy that this government is determined to achieve. It’s a tremendous vote of confidence in the skills and capabilities of the company’s British workforce and in the future of UK manufacturing.”
BMW also points out that the Hams Hall engine factory near Birmingham recorded a new annual production record last year with more than 385,000 four-cylinder engines developed both for MINI and BMW models. With such a large number of units each year, the British engine plant represents 16% of the total UK production in this domain. BMW Group also reported increased sales by 22.1% in May but this will represent the subject of tomorrow’s article on our website.
