OT Morgan sold off to Italians

Morgan family grabbed the money and ran. 100 years of history count for nothing.

You can't pay bills with history

Morgan family maybe old and tired.

True. They just want to sit back on their arses,

Clueless as ever. But then it's not as if anyone could ever accuse you two of sitting back on your arse and posting drivel, now is it eh?

Of course, the story of Morgan's family politics started a while back. Back in 2013 then Managing Director Charles Morgan was forced out of the company after a boardroom bust-up over various issues, the biggest being the amount being spent to develop the Eva,

Although no longer in control - or even on the board - Charle Morgan remained the largest shareholder in the company.

To get technical, ownership was split between him and three other family members, with a total of 52 per cent, with a collective family trust having the other 48 percent. So while Morgan was entirely Morgan-owned it's fair to say that it didn't make for the happiest of family dynamics.

Instead, after splashing out a bit too much over the past few years in buying back the factory, opening the visitor centre, and spending £7m on developing the Plus 6 they panicked. However in the end they've saved everybody's jobs by selling out to Invest Industrial.

michael adams

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Or young and CBA?

It's their firm, and their money. Good luck to them.

We haven't seen you do anything to add to the history of the UK, you have been sitting on your arse for a lifetime I expect.

Well worth a visit to the factory. I had a tour last year. Lots of hand work, including forming bonnets from flat sheet.

The shop had a Morgan pedal car, a snip at £8k.

Chris

That may be the transport method of the future. As in The Space Merchants (Pohl & Kornbluth): "when the oil ran out, technology developed the pedicab".

ISTR they did do a MM story based vaguely around a re-named Morgan.

Hand work is never going to come cheap. Probably the only other marques hand beating aluminium nowadays are the likes of Ferrari and maybe Aston Martin. Most of the rest are probably carbon.

Morgan was one of John Harvey Jones case studies. He was highly critical of their workflow which saw bodies worked on in one shed and wheeled to another shed for further work. Miracle worker that he was, he re-arranged it all at a stroke, but ISTR they changed right back again soon after he left.

Despite your £8k pedal car quite possibly they simply weren't charging enough for the work that actually went into every car; maybe out of misguided condideration for what they still saw as their traditional customer base, dunno.

michael adams

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I remember the pickle factory one where the woman director who could also drive a fork lift, crushed the bloke with a pallet of pickle.

There was an Inspector Morse to do with cars where some of them wanted to sell out to the Japanese. Can't remeber if they were murdered or not, or if it was a red herring.

michael adams

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It's a thriving concern with a waiting list that shows no sign of ending. People who buy Morgans will keep on buying.

The factory might still use jigs and methods that date back decades but that's why people buy them.

The only problem Morgan have is how to replace highly skilled retiring workers with todays useless young people.

It is all to easy to let sentiment cloud judgment in business but business is about making money. Would you rather the company had gone to the wall, with the associated loss of jobs etc?

Of course. Then he could rant about that, too.

Approximately 70% of the workforce live locally to the factory in Malvern itself, the average age of the workforce is 42 years.

Apprenticeships run for up to 4 years and involve day release to a local college. All other training is "on the Job" as the youngsters learn their trade from the crafts men and women around them.

michael adams

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