Discussion
framerateuk said:
I would say it means they need to stick to what they good at - building and updating the 7 and not get too many delusions of being able to compete in other markets.
I wholeheartedly agree with this comment. The difficulty is holding in balance growth, technical innovation and understanding your market. Its already been stated that any attempt that CC has made to produce another model has failed miserably, so one can only conclude that maybe CC are seeking to answer questions that people aren't asking. 
Long live the 7There is no suggestion whatsoever that their creditors are unpaid. It was reported in the Sunday Times yesterday that the company reported a £20m loss, £16m of which was due to writing off development costs after the Renault deal stopped. The parent company, Caterham Enterprises, provided loans which were converted into equity.
http://skiddmark.com/2015/04/caterham-rebuilds-for...
Sounds more positive - especially given their last article on how to destroy a brand!
Sounds more positive - especially given their last article on how to destroy a brand!
lawtoma said:
http://skiddmark.com/2015/04/caterham-rebuilds-for...
Sounds more positive - especially given their last article on how to destroy a brand!
Good article. They seem to be on the right track. Seems someone has managed to keep Fernandez in check, but I still fear for the company while he's in charge.Sounds more positive - especially given their last article on how to destroy a brand!
It's a really interesting business as it has a great product that through ckever iterations of the basic design can be made to appeal to lots of different markets.
The problem is to make money for an owner. It was perfect as a lifestyle business for the Nearns. But times change.
Fernandes wants to sell it. Someone who buys it is unlikely to want to run it as a life style business. So it has to have a grand plan.
It has always tried to come up with new models as I assume the scaling of production, supply, sales and support of the 7 has so far been impossible. It's too small to be a global supplier of an expensive to manufacture car.
So can't diversify, can't scale, can't be a lifestyle business, can't have a grand plan for a new owner.
Looks like a three pipe problem.
Bert
The problem is to make money for an owner. It was perfect as a lifestyle business for the Nearns. But times change.
Fernandes wants to sell it. Someone who buys it is unlikely to want to run it as a life style business. So it has to have a grand plan.
It has always tried to come up with new models as I assume the scaling of production, supply, sales and support of the 7 has so far been impossible. It's too small to be a global supplier of an expensive to manufacture car.
So can't diversify, can't scale, can't be a lifestyle business, can't have a grand plan for a new owner.
Looks like a three pipe problem.
Bert
reading between the lines, big tony has caterham up for sale which im not entirely surprised about. If you look on his twitter page he rarely mentions caterham but its all about QPR and Air Asia.
I just hope that caterham dont rest on there laurels and build a proper future seven, just look at how much gineta have grown and the new potential with the LMP3 car. But this is down to having the cash and spending it properly.
I just hope that caterham dont rest on there laurels and build a proper future seven, just look at how much gineta have grown and the new potential with the LMP3 car. But this is down to having the cash and spending it properly.
scottracing said:
just look at how much gineta have grown and the new potential with the LMP3 car. But this is down to having the cash and spending it properly.
I can't convince myself that Ginetta are in any way a role model here. They sell no road cars to speak of, but have some good racing models although with fairly limited numbers. The P3 project shows all the signs of being as difficult as it could be and I don't think it will change Ginetta's fortunes.Caterham are really good at creating and selling one car. A race car for the road and a road car for racing. They are unable to do anything else as time has shown, but they are very good at what they are good at. Their problem is scaling what they do. They need to find a way of making 800, then 1000, then 1200 cars (specifically Sevens) per year with the absolute minimum geographical coverage.
But I suspect the difficulty is finding a new owner. Tony will want a daftly high price and the investment case for an independent new owner won't stack up without global domination.
So that leaves it to a (so-called) strategic purchaser. Someone who has good presence and distribution who can pay the right price to put the "assets" of Caterham (I don't mean that in a bad way) to good use.
So if Porsche had a mind to be in that part of the market, they could buy Caterham. They certainly know how to build cars in scale, have strong distribution and a massive pedigree in road-cars for racing. Perfect. Except it would be meaningless to them so they wouldn't.
Could you put Radical and Caterham together? Perhaps. There are some synergies. Perhaps their two racing ladders could be moulded into one cohesive one. Radical have road car aspirations, so Caterham's experience there helps. There's nothing obvious that helps on scalability, both suffer from the hand-made car problem.
I'd buy Caterham!
Bert
Bert
apexcone said:
Link doesn't work ; but surely the point is that as I understand it Caterham F1 was always a separate entity (hence it being for sale)and I assume that the Renault project JV was Caterham themselves? They might have set up a separate company for the JV of course. Is there evidence that suppliers have not been paid or is it mere speculation ?
coppice said:
Link doesn't work ; but surely the point is that as I understand it Caterham F1 was always a separate entity (hence it being for sale)and I assume that the Renault project JV was Caterham themselves? They might have set up a separate company for the JV of course. Is there evidence that suppliers have not been paid or is it mere speculation ?
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