Re: Charles Morgan fights back

[Fire99]

Raph C said:

Only one thing is certain:

Charles Morgan is better at PR than those who have ousted him.

The rest can only be speculation

True..

[Bencolem]

430Racer said:

I'm sure CM's upset. He definitely won't need a drop in salary to hang on to this little beauty of a Russian model/ actress. http://www.kieramorgan.com/

Love the way she got involved on Twitter.

Have you seen the Supersports video? Oh dear...

[CraigyMc]

rtz62 said:

Wonders: " how would we have viewed things if Colin Chapman were still alive and the announcement was made that he had been ousted from Lotus....."?

Wee bit different: Lotus was built by Chapman. You can't say the same about Morgan.

Perhaps another equivalent would be William Lyons/Jaguar.

[T5Andy]

sad61t said:

_Neal_ said:

...
Think we should avoid speculating until we have some actual facts.

Ah, but uninformed speculation (US) is the oxygen of online forums. So here goes:

1. Mr Morgan has grown the Morgan brand (fact).
2. He is now sitting on a small fortune (maybe, but in the true spirit of US posts I can't be bothered to make even a cursory check).
3. His vision of the future is to Aston-ise the Morgan brand, but developing new cars takes a large fortune.
4. He plans to take the small fortune and leverage a large fortune (via parties unknown, but FilthyRichOilBank Inc* will do for a placeholder), securing it with MMC lock, stock and two smoking side-exit pipes.
5. The MMC 2.0 business plan projects sales volumes in excess of 5000pa.
6. The family is appalled at such a high risk strategy (which, even if successful would utterly change the Morgan brand+), cries of desist have been ignored and their only exit strategy is to exit Mr Morgan.

* {The inclusion of base stereotypes is a requirement of US posts.}
+ {The post regarding Pagini is fitting.}

All utter speculation. Chilli was served for lunch.

An utterly pointless but nonetheless hugely entertaining post-well done 10/10!!!

[DreadUK]

CraigyMc said:

A post I made to the other thread on this topic (which existed long before the PH article)

CraigyMc said:

Morgan Motor Company Ltd is a subsidiary of Morgan Technologies Ltd, which is the parent of the rest of the group.

The shareholdings of this company are as follows:

Shareholders (Top 20 names shown)  Number of Shares (at Value)  Ownership (%)
CHARLES PETER HENRYMORGAN          29,133 (at £1)                  30.67
PHG MORGAN FAMILY TRUST            45,600 (at £1)                  48.00
JILLPRICE                          10,134 (at £1)                  10.67
JACQUELINEPERTWEE                   5,067 (at £1)                   5.33
CRAIGHAMILTON-SMITH                 5,066 (at £1)                   5.33

Have a peruse at http://companycheck.co.uk/company/07459137/MORGAN-...

I may be (am?) displaying my profound ignorance of business finance here but if the shareholders who ousted Chas were only interested in selling to Korea Corp. for purely financial gain, isn't there the opportunity for him to scupper that by making an offer that jillprice, jaquelinepertwee and craighamiltonsmith couldn't possibly refuse, under cover of Bert Widget of Widgets Ltd., gaining control and reinstating himself.

I'm not clear on the personal relationships though, if one of the smaller shareholders is married to a Family Trust member, for example, I guess it would scupper the whole ploy. If there are internal relationships involved and Chas relinquished control by selling his earlier controlling stake (if that ever existed) then, frankly, he deserves everything he gets.

What I really don't get is that the company is really on the up, new models, new processes and some fantastic publicity. If I had the money I would be first in line for the new 3 wheeler, they must have back orders coming ou their....well....backside. And whilst that's a compelling reason for Korea Corp. to buy, would you really sell a £30M company? After all, the cash the shareholders would get would surely be nothing to what they would earn riding the wave for the next ten years?

And whilst I believe Chas recalled and replaced front suspension components, surely that's such an obviously successful customer care coup nobody in the company could fail to realise it as a stroke of marketing genius. It cashes in on Toyota's bust to boom policy of turning a PR disaster into an honourable success.

And from Chas' perspective, if Korea Corp. buy control of the company, pumps in tens of millions, the value of the company rises and production increases, almost inevitably until the Chinese and Russians get sick of their new toys. Chas reaps the benefit of the dividends in the meantime, then when the company crashes and burns he buys the shares back for peanuts, gains full control and hey presto, another PR coup, back in the saddle ready to rebuild Morgan.

Or am I just living in cloud cuckoo land? (rhetorical question thanks).

[Camlet]

Complete shambles and the Board as a whole are a collective disgrace to their employees and customers. Charles Morgan was clearly unable to keep control of his Board, lost the confidence of his fellow shareholders and decided to use the gutter of social media to fight back, understandable perhaps at an emotional level but in doing so now threatens the entire company. Meanwhile his fellow Board members and key shareholders whatever their rationale have behaved in a breathtakingly ham- fisted and remarkably stupid manner, again threatening the entire company. Deeply unimpressive all round.

[pagani1]

The entire "back complaint" industry will be alarmed if Morgan stop making their traditional cars.

[hidetheelephants]

Fire99 said:

A curious situation but the only definite thing so far is that this is a PR 'balls-up' for Morgan.

Plus eleventytwelve; a proper 24ct, 5 star, polychromatic, diamond-encrusted, spinning bow-tie extravaganza of a PR clusterfk.

[DJRC]

Its a rum do when you have thesw goings on during a successful period! Talk about self inflicted damage!

[phugleigh]

Couple of nice ones sold at h & h last week
These cars are great -

http://www.classic-auctions.com/Auctions/16-10-201...
http://www.classic-auctions.com/Auctions/16-10-201...

[paul0843]

From a different perspective the other shareholders may feel that CM is getting
too big for his boots and running the company that his a part owner of as
his own,without consulting them on stuff they feel they should be consulted on.
Also do they see eye to eye on his income/benefits in kind?
He would be of the opinion that his due a substantial amount more as his leading
from the front and being MORGAN then maybe the other shareholders as he does more.
Sister and husband get jealous and feel they should also have more reward..?
Maybe he just had a new kitchen installed and paid by the company and they wanted one too
which he refused..
Nothing new in family business set ups..all IMO off course
Paul..

[oldtimer2]

SPT28 said:

I thought Charles Morgan was the MD at the time of the above programme.

Interestingly there was a small article back in March that seems to highlight the start of the changes http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/charles...

My memory is a little hazy, though I do remember watching the programme at the time; I think it was in the late 1980s. There was a certain incongruity between the retired Chairman of mega giant ICI advising the small Morgan Motor Co how it really should running its business. I thought Peter Morgan was running it then, but maybe you are right and I am wrong.

[oldtimer2]

SPT28 said:

I thought Charles Morgan was the MD at the time of the above programme.

Interestingly there was a small article back in March that seems to highlight the start of the changes http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/charles...

My memory is a little hazy, though I do remember watching the programme at the time; I think it was in the late 1980s. There was a certain incongruity between the retired Chairman of mega giant ICI advising the small Morgan Motor Co how it really should running its business. I thought Peter Morgan was running it then, but maybe you are right and I am wrong.

[Strawman]

SPT28 said:

oldtimer2 said:

It seems to me that either the other shareholders think he is useless at what he does or, alternatively, he and they have differents views on the way ahead - either stay small or expand. Which ever it is they concluded it was better for the business he was not there.

The wordpress blog, referenced above reminded me of the Harvey-Jones TV programme in which he tried to persuade the then MD, an earlier generation Morgan, that he should expand his business. He declined to do so, believing Morgn was better off staying small and working with an extended order book for the unique, quirky products that no one else made. I thought Morgan was right then. I think they would be right to stay with that approach today. I am unclear what the parties to the present dispute think about this - if indeed this is the point of the dispute.

PS I assume the appeal is to the other shareholders.

I thought Charles Morgan was the MD at the time of the above programme.

Interestingly there was a small article back in March that seems to highlight the start of the changes http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/charles...

The programme was more like twenty years ago, 1990-93 according to wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubleshooter_(TV_se...

One amusing part of the programme was Harvey-jones went on about the low tech approach with no rolling production line and how the factory was built on a slope so they could wheel the rolling chassis from one stage to the next using gravity to help. At the time the production line was the other way around and they had to work against gravity when moving the cars, the engineers noticed Sir H-O mistaken attribution and changed the production line around the make this true, after the fact.

[toppstuff]

I am amazed that people still bang on about that Sir John HJ thing. It was a generation ago. Totally irrelevant.

[mikebradford]

Bencolem said:

Have you seen the Supersports video? Oh dear...

not a fan!, she was pretty fit right up to the point she started limping
went right off her

[Wacky Racer]

I have both the Sir Harvey Jones programmes on VHS cassette, taped off the TV at the time, makes very interesting viewing even today.

I felt a little sorry for Jones after the first programme, because he was given short shrift by Peter Morgan, although Peter did introduce some recommendations in the period between the two programmes, increasing production slightly.

When I bought my first plus eight in 1978, the waiting list was 6/8 years, so things have improved dramatically, although it has to be said these latest developments are definitely a PR disaster.

I still believe Morgan has a healthy long term future though.

[northandy]

stain said:

Nope. Why?

I think frimley111 was wondering why you would be worried about the MD being ousted, if your car is just going into build. They will carry on building cars (in the short term at least, unless the removal is signifying some change to future direction)

Stick it in readers cars when it arrives as I'm sure lots will want to see it, me included.

[ayseven]

I had the pleasure of meeting his dad, and had a nice tour of the factory back in the 70's. Do not underestimate having a Morgan as head of a small, specialised manufacturer. The brand is dependent upon the quirky, old fashioned look to the enterprise. But hey, it is their outfit, and they can run it into the ground if they want to.

He probably knows something about what is happening in the industry, that prompted him to want to expand in other areas, beyond the 'handmade British cars, designed yesterday, and built today'.

[DonkeyApple]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fFToJm-fpo&sns...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6WmeXTWppk&sns...

Enjoyable.