Closed: TVR's Bristol Avenue plant
The TVR ex-workers' union, the TGWU, has called on the government to conduct an inquiry into last week's sale of TVR by its Russian owner, Nikolai Smolenski, to a pair of US-based businessmen.
This followed the fall into administration late last year of the main business, Blackpool Automotive, which owned TVR's intellectual property and its physical assets. The administrators then put the shell of the company, stripped of its debts, up for auction.
Bidders included engine designer Al Melling and the eventual winner, Nikolai Smolenski, who first bought the company in 2004 for an undisclosed amount, but which was thought to be around £15 million. He then pumped more money into the business but car sales were on what seemed to be an irretrievably steep downward curve.
After almost a year of declining economic activity at the company Bristol Avenue plant, the company went under, owing its ex-employees redundancy money.
Then, after winning the auction last month with a bid of about £2 million, Smolenski last week announced that he was selling the company to a pair of US-based business partners, Adam Burdette and Jean Michel Santacreu. The pair first dealt with TVR when they approached Smolenski with a view to importing the cars into the USA. They said there was a big market for British sports cars -- although they have yet to surmount the hurdle of tough US import restrictions, masquerading as emissions and safety legislation.
The new virtual car company will make cars somewhere on the mainland, probably at Bertone in Italy. A deal's due to be struck sometime this month. There will be some British input to the cars, with engines and gearboxes made by Ricardo, while other UK-based concerns will deliver interiors and other components.
Smolenski criticised the UK authorities saying they didn't support British business. But on the workforce, Smolenski was more apologetic, and told Car magazine that he felt for the workforce who had lost their jobs. "The workers have to be mad, they should be mad at me. I accept the blame. I realise it will not be easy for them to find a new job in Blackpool," he said.
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