Monday 9th July 2012
BMW pours £250m into Mini in the UK
But there are plans to expand outside the UK too
Mini has announced today that it is to plough £250m of investment into its three UK plants by 2015.
The money, which will go into Mini's UK assembly operations at Cowley in Oxford, its body pressing plant in Swindon and its engine factory at Hams Hall - which also recently got the contract to build the engines for the BMW i3 and i8.
This comes on top of a £500m investment in the UK from June last year up to 2014, further safeguarding around 5,500 jobs.
But Mini's growth could move outside the UK in the longer term, as sales forecasts will soon go beyond the Oxford plant's maximum capacity.
BMW is looking to keep production close to its current epicentre in the UK, however, and is eyeing up the Mitsubishi-owned Nedcar factory in the Netherlands as a favourite site for future Mini production. The former Volvo factory, which has recently stopped producing Mitsubishis, could build both the Countryman SUV and its forthcoming three-door sister car, the Paceman.
"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," says Harald Krueger, Member of the Board of Management for BMW Group.
BMW is keen to stress that the UK remains at the heart of Mini's identity, however, Krueger saying that "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."
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Oddball RS
Original Poster
1,191 posts
87 months
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A Dutch Mini called 'Paceman' eh?
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Caulkhead
4,938 posts
26 months
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Oddball RS said: A Dutch Mini called 'Paceman' eh? Reminds me of the Innocenti Mini built in Italy.
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Dr Interceptor
1,471 posts
65 months
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Brilliant news on the investment - that means job safety for many many people in the UK, and the potential for more jobs in the future too. Great to see inward investment in the UK.
Logical that BMW MINI will need to look outside the UK for production as Cowley is already at capacity with five models in production there - if they can acquire a new site to ensure Countryman and other spin offs are built up to BMW standards, rather than sub contracting out the production, thats good news too.
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Gas Gas Panic
65 posts
75 months
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£250M?
Chump change...
"No surprise that the Bank of England has opted to inject another £50bn into the economy. But, looking at what's happened to lending and other economic data since the Bank re-started quantitative easing last autumn, many in the City are wondering how much difference this extra liquidity is likely to make."
Stephanie Flanders
Economics editor
BBC
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Bailiff
5 posts
56 months
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Gas Gas Panic said: £250M?
Chump change... PH Article said: This comes on top of a £500m investment in the UK from June last year up to 2014. BMW to plow 3/4 of a Billion pounds into Mini seems pretty decent if you ask me.
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arkenphel
210 posts
74 months
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Nedcar. Ahahahahahahaha..... 
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LuS1fer
28,471 posts
114 months
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The rumour is they want to build a whole new model call;ed the Hugei. 
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ewenm
24,427 posts
114 months
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Gas Gas Panic said: £250M?
Chump change...
"No surprise that the Bank of England has opted to inject another £50bn into the economy. But, looking at what's happened to lending and other economic data since the Bank re-started quantitative easing last autumn, many in the City are wondering how much difference this extra liquidity is likely to make."
Stephanie Flanders
Economics editor
BBC The difference is that BMW are putting £250m exactly where their business needs it, whereas the government are essentially throwing money around and hoping that the people who need it (need being defined as "will use it to help boost economic figures") manage to get it.
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Oddball RS
Original Poster
1,191 posts
87 months
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Caulkhead said: Oddball RS said: A Dutch Mini called 'Paceman' eh? Reminds me of the Innocenti Mini built in Italy. Not really as there were differences, dash, carbs, trim and they led to a totally new car being built, this will be just a Dutch Mini called a Pacman........................ :-)
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JohnoVR6
357 posts
81 months
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Gas Gas Panic said: £250M?
Chump change... And a small snippet of the £1.75bn BMW have invested in Mini sites since 2000.
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LuS1fer
28,471 posts
114 months
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If they build the Coupe in the Netherlands, it will be a Dutch Cap.
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mrmr96
11,922 posts
73 months
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Are these cars going to have effective locks/immobilisers that can't be bypassed in seconds?
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Mr2Mike
9,420 posts
124 months
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The investment is great news. Lets hope some of it goes towards improving the looks of the vomit inducing Countryman.
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The Crack Fox
8,075 posts
61 months
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I'm not a fan of their latest over-styled stuff, but this is great news for the UK, well done BMW 
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ewenm
24,427 posts
114 months
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Mr2Mike said: The investment is great news. Lets hope some of it goes towards improving the looks of the vomit inducing Countryman. Given how well it seems to be selling, I doubt any cash will head in that direction at all.
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MrTappets
732 posts
60 months
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Great news for British jobs. Now if they told me the Rocketman was going ahead I'd be really happy
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Oilchange
2,837 posts
129 months
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they shouldn't have called it the Countryman, they should have called it the MAXI !
assuming they own the copywrite etc
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yorky500
1,254 posts
60 months
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MrTappets said: Great news for British jobs. You mean those jobs in Britian being done by foreigners?
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RichyBoy
2,067 posts
86 months
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Good news for jobs.
Love my mini fjcw.
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tonker
43,748 posts
117 months
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Brilliant. Will they spend some money to fix the security problem before, or after this investment ? Or do Africans not want very cheap MINIs ?
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