Morgan Motor Cars celebrates 10 years of exhibiting at the Geneva Motor Show.
Tomorrow, Morgan Motor Cars will take up its stand at the Geneva Motor Show, one of Europe’s most highly regarded automotive show cases.
The world’s oldest British-owned car manufacturer has been able to leverage a position at the show for the last ten years thanks to the sponsorship of Swiss bank Banque Baring Brothers Sturdza who Morgan says “recognised the value of being associated with such a famous historic British Marque”. Its support and the show case provided in Geneva have contributed to a revival for Morgan which, today, see it more productive than ever in its history.
In 1991 the iconic British car maker was publicly slated by business turnaround guru Sir John Harvey Jones for its inefficiencies and poor lead times. But those days are far behind.
In 1991 Morgan was making 400 cars a year. Today it is making 1200 and with orders coming in thick and fast from a booming new export market in China, Morgan is targeting 1500 units a year by 2014.
In 2012 Morgan opened three export dealerships in China which is now the most popular and fastest growing market for its quirky 3 Wheeler. This model was brought back into production in 2011 and 20 new staff have recently been brought on to service demand.
Morgan hopes to further boost sales among an existing fan base and to grow new customers in 2013 via a new e-commerce initiative – the Morgan Web Shop. This will be officially launched at the Geneva Motor Show this year.
Investment in web presence has been important for Morgan in the past couple of years with redevelopment of the website and growth of social media channels. The company website now receives 50,000 unique visitors a week and the firm has 8500 Facebook followers and 5300 Twitter followers.
In terms of the technology behind Morgan vehicles themselves, 2013 will also bring some exciting developments. In particular the company is partnering with research centres and industrial partners to explore the use of magnesium as a new platform material.
To see the manufacturing process in action, join one of Morgan’s 20,000 annual visitors to its factory in Malvern. Later this month veteran reporter John Snow will join this throng as he hosts a special Chanel 4 Budget review direct from the iconic factory.
