Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Investindustrial and majority stake in Morgan

I recall Carl Ichon doing this to TWA.... suck the money out and leave ashes in your wake.... venture capitalism at its worst

Vulture Capital was dubbed so for a reason. I hope Morgan can survive.

I can't help but connect CM's ousting and this development - sitting on 30% with reduced income and no control is a volatile mix.

Goodness what a sad day, 110 years was a good run but instead of celebrating with a 51 percent family controlled company with a great new product to push they have slid away.
I guess with the 'company figures' for the last two years it was a good time to exit as with electrification slowly looming and their own failure in that department and ongoing compliance costs spiralling the shareholders took their opportunity, funny I expected it to be BMW .
I can't help wondering what some of the oldest dealers will make of the relentless push upmarket - Lifes and Melvyn for example.
One upside of this gloomy news is that all of us with existing cars have just had our investment firmed up.
Off for a drive in the sunshine in my hot smelly rattly trad then a drink, cheers Peter Morgan and HFS. ( not Chianti)

This just gets worse.....

I knew I shouldn’t have taken my 4/4 out for an “Italian tune-up”... Oh dear.

My first thought - that's a bit sad.

But then think on it. Owning a family business comes with responsibilities, not least to your staff, and the place you're based.
(I write this as the 3d generation part owner of a £20m turnover, 200+ staff family business)

That responsibility includes the long term security of people's livelihoods.

Morgan have a significant commercial opportunity, but it's not in the UK - it's in Asia and America. But it will take a huge investment and deep pockets to succeed in those markets.

I wonder who owns those fields behind the factory? It would prove to be a very smart move by the town if they'd left Morgan room to expand, rather than being forced to relocate. They'll need the space to make more cars.

And Morgan faces a significant technical risk: they will have to manufacture hybrid and electric vehicles (or hydrogen, but that's a different conversation h/t PeterJ :-) )

The e3W will have taught Morgan many lessons about alternative power - not least that it's difficult to get right. Hybrid Morgans will need a stable, light platform to have effective power-to-weight ratios. A trad chassis would shake itself to bits and be too heavy to perform or meet emissions standards.

Morgan had no choice but to go down the Aero chassis route, and it will doubtless come to all models in the range. Think of the chassis as a single, variable component of all 4 wheel Morgans - the volume goes up, the cost comes down, and it becomes affordable in a 'widebody Plus 4'. And owners can have the choice of Traditional or Aero bodies, with a choice of power - 4 or 6, petrol, electric or hybrid.

The '30's styling is unique, whether you take in in Trad or Aero flavour - and that's incredibly valuable in a world where most cars could be debadged or rebadged, and you'd be hard pressed to tell one from the other. Porsche manage it... I'm not sure any other manufacturer does. (Maybe Lamborghini, but hell they're brutal).

The +6 shows that you can have traditional styling on a modern platform. Morgan will need to learn how to look after their heritage, and the customers who embody it - looking at how Aston Martin were developed there's every reason to think that'll happen.

Will

Will,

they own the playing fields behind the factory. They bought the land, along with the visitor centre, at the same time as they bought the factory back.
I talked to Graham Chapman about expanding production to a second shift. He told me the big block is skilled craft labour, mainly in the trim area.

If MMC could take production from 750 cars a year to 1500 the business model would be very different....

Peter

You forgot 3 cylinder.

B38A15M0 1,500 cc (92 cu in) 100 kW (134 bhp) at 4,400-6,000 rpm and torque 220 Nm (162 lb⋅ft) at 1,250-4,300 rpm

Plus the availability of the 170 kW (228 bhp) hybrid version as used in the BMW i8.

Umm, like they seem to be currently planning for MINI production at Abingdon?

Interesting news.

I write as the previous owner of a great British company that was 101 years old at the time of sale 4 years ago, with 2600 staff and turnover of £160 million.

There are always three sides to every sale. 1) the perspective of the sellers. 2) The perspective of the buyers and 3) the perspective of the customers. Most comments on this thread have already covered the reasons why the Morgan family decided to cash out and timing and the ever growing legislation is without doubt a major factor in that as it was my own case - one simply cannot keep pace with it without a large injection of cash. So the choice is find the cash, or risk going under - it's that simple.

From the buyers perspective Morgan are a gem. The heritage/brand (as with BMW/Mini) alone is worth £millions. I agree with many on this thread, as venture capitalists they are not in this to nurture Morgan, they are in this for the short/medium term to make a good return. That can have negative consequences BUT I have seen a number of companies go this route and second time they are sold (if there is not an IPO) they are snapped up by larger organisations in the same sector with a vested interest in developing the brand/company - so it can work out well.

From the customers point of view - well.....it's all on here isn't it! Some see it negatively, some see it positively. From my perspective, I look five years ahead. When Investindustrial cash out, that will be the point at which we will know whether this was a good/bad thing. For now, it is a real opportunity that can go one of two ways. My hope is up.

From my own personal experience of selling a great British organisation with heritage - four years on, my company has been decimated by buyers who thought they knew better. Turnover and profit are drastically down and falling after twelve years of continual growth up to sale, there has been an exodus of staff, both willingly and forced (brain drain). My company was sold for the right reasons to buyers that bought into the story/heritage - they lied. That's one bad experience....but equally I know of many good experiences - I truly hope MMC are the latter.