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TVR's Russian Revolution
Roman Abramovich has transformed Chelsea — now millionaire Nikolai Smolenski is determined to have a similar effect on sports car maker TVR.In just a few months the straight-talking Russian has ruffled a few feathers at Britain’s biggest independent sports car firm. Smolenski, who inherited his fortune from his businessman father, has a string of hi-tech firms but he liked TVRs so much he bought the company. But can a 24-year-old with no experience in this business suddenly run a sports car firm in one of the most fiercely competitive markets? Or is Nikolai Smolenski simply a rich playboy treating TVR like his latest toy? Smolenski appears to be serious. He spent an estimated £15million buying the company and has already invested several millions more in the firm. One of his first decisions was to give TVR the racy new company slogan “Orgasmic Living” to replace the original “Spirit Of Driving.” Since his arrival three months ago, executives have come and gone and there are fears that production will be shifted to Russia with the loss of 420 jobs at the Blackpool factory.
The latest twist is the high-profile appointment of a new managing director and marketing director, who then departed within a matter of weeks. Nigel Gordon-Stewart and David Saxton, former UK bosses at Lamborghini and Lotus, two of the most experienced executives in the UK specialist sports car business, were appointed by Smolenski as key parts of his long term strategy. They departed under a cloud in under three weeks. Sources tell me that Stewart and Saxton, who had plans to buy TVR themselves before Smolenski beat them to it, were not happy with the direction and way the young Russian was taking the business. There are also claims that Smolenski rules the company with an iron grip and that another potential clash is on the horizon, over plans to bring a union into the factory to represent the 420 workers. David Oxley, production director of TVR, confirmed that they had been approached by the TGWU and that they were unhappy with the tactics used by the union so far. He said: “Their tactics to date have reminded us what happened to the British motor industry in the Seventies. “We have no problem with a union replacing the current Works Committee, if that is what everyone wants. We have even suggested a TVR union. “However, as we all stand or fall together, the people with whom we consult as to the direction that the company will take should care more about all our futures than they do about scoring points.” Two vital new models, the Tuscan Mark II and the Sagaris, have been delayed from their original launch dates. Finding out exactly what is happening at TVR has been as easy as getting information out of the KGB in recent months. Smolenski has given no interviews and the rest of the staff remain tight-lipped. But Sun Motors finally got some answers this week. In his first statement since taking over, Smolenski told The Sun:
“To that end we have already taken on 40 new staff in Blackpool and are recruiting more. “These are exciting times for TVR but there are inevitably going to be growing pains. We are going to have to work together, enormously hard, for TVR to take its place on the global stage that it merits. “I have invested a very considerable amount of money in TVR because it represents all that is best in British engineering and ingenuity and I really want to see what it can do with some extra resources behind it.” He insisted: “I have absolutely no plans to move production to Russia.”
But he is determined TVR will become a major player in his homeland and is setting up a direct sales operation in Moscow and other major cities. Company spokesman Ian Law said the delay in the launch of the new models was simply because Mr Smolenski wanted extra testing and improvements to fine-tune the cars, which will arrive in showrooms early in the New Year. He said: “The reaction to our show cars in places like Russia and the United States tells us that we have only been dealing with the tip of the iceberg. “As a proudly Lancastrian company, we have always joked that our biggest export market has been Surrey. That has to change and it will.” TVR say sales this year are on course to hit 1,000, slightly higher than the total in 2003. The future is very much in the hands of a very single-minded young Russian. Let’s hope they are safe hands. Bron: The Sun |
