Ron Dennis has spilled the beans about plans to turn McLaren into a volume competitor for Ferrari in the luxury sports car market, reports the
With international investors running scared of the automotive sector in the light of its current plight, we can’t help wondering whether Big Ron’s comments to the FT were designed to help shake out the extra funding required for his planned expansion. The McLaren strategy apparently demands a £250m injection in new production facilities to enable the group to meet its target of building 1,000 sports cars in 2011 and 4,000 by 2012.
According to the FT, McLaren (whose existing shareholders include Daimler, a Bahraini group and TAG) has instructed Credit Suisse to draw up a funding strategy that includes bringing in new outside investors. Ron said that recession has 'definitely thrown a glitch' into plans to double McLaren’s £650m valuation to £1.25bn in 2012.
According to the interview, the McLaren Group is 'focused on a variety of UK solutions' for its planned expansion, even though the capital requirements for new UK production facilities will be greater than using a production partner like Magna in Austria, as has been suggested recently in the automotive media.
'My intention is within the next six months to create 400 new jobs and save 200 jobs. Where everybody is looking to trim their costs, I want to grow,' said Ron.