Vrooming marvellous year for Mini
RECORD sales of British?made Mini and Rolls-Royce cars helped to drive the best year ever for German owner BMW.
Sales of Oxford-made Minis rose 5.8 per cent to 301,526 last year while Rolls-Royce sales rose 1 per cent to 3,575.
Mini, which employs 3,700 people, was Britain’s third biggest producer of cars last year behind leader Nissan and Jaguar Land Rover. About 80 per cent of Minis go for export.
Most Minis are made in Oxford but the Countryman is made under contract in Austria and BMW is considering setting up a similar operation in Holland.
We're cautiously optimistic
It plans to invest £750million in the third generation Mini, which rolls out in 2014. Rolls-Royce, based at Goodwood, had flat UK sales but did well in Europe, the US, Middle East and Asia.
BMW hopes to boost sales in 2013 but profits are likely to be similar to 2012 due to investment.
Chairman Norbert Reithofer said: “We’re cautiously optimistic.”