Morgan Motor Company announced record profits as it prepares to launch a range of vehicles in its 110th year. The iconic Malvern-based family-owned firm, which employs 204 staff, said profits jumped to £3.6million last year from £2million 12 months earlier.
Output dropped from 750 to 681 cars as the firm said goodbye to the thirsty V8 engine and the Aero 8 and Plus 8 models which use it. Morgan is expected to launch a more frugal but sportier replacement at this spring’s Geneva Motor Show.
Output last year dropped from 750 to 681 cars as the firm said goodbye to the outgoing thirsty V8 engine and the Aero 8 and Plus 8 models which use it and prepare instead for the launch of less thirsty but even sportier replacements.
This will be a new wide-bodied Morgan sports car with a new flexible aluminum chassis – which the firm has spent £7million developing – plus an expected leaner, meaner six-cylinder petrol engine from BMW, which bosses believe will together create ’the most dynamically capable production Morgan ever‘.
Chairman Dominic Riley said that as part of a five-year strategy the business had increased the gross margin on its cars from 25 percent to 35 percent, making it more efficient and profitable.
Morgan exports 70 percent of its production to around 50 countries. Riley said they were taking prudent precautions to stockpile and store sufficient engines to see them through any short-term Brexit hiccup.
We’ve been trading with Europe for 110 years. So we’re very adaptable, nimble and flexible. We’re taking sensible measures.
— Dominic Riley – Chairman, Morgan Motor Company
Note: Press release courtesy of Morgan Motor Company.
Bravo!
Morgan provides the perfect rebuttal to the business-school doctrine that says a business must expand or die.