TVR workforce discarded

[MCB]

I guess you have heard the latest episode regarding the demise of several hundred jobs up in Blackpool and the associated abuse carried out by a spoilt 24 year old Russian brat to a highly skilled British workforce.

I do not however think that he alone is responsible for this, I think Peter Wheeler is partly responsible together with Blackpool Council and our Government that allows anybody with enough cash to treat the UK as an industrial supermarket.

It was not that long ago we had the MG Rover fiasco, this was also quite unbelievable, four business men who were allowed to line their pockets with approx £10M each, a pension fund for themselves and their Families of £16.5M and a in full view of the workforce, attendant politicians and the Country. And then following the bankruptcy it was discovered that they had additionally stripped the Company of all valuable assets and transferred ownership to their parent company Phoenix.

Lets not forget that when Rover filed for bankruptcy the company had debts of £1.4bn and they made more than 5,500 people redundant!

Now we have another very sad story in our car manufacturing industry, 260 jobs, hundreds of families faced with more of this stress and worry on the verge of Xmass, lets forget about the sports cars for a minute and think about that! You can debate about why it happened, what is to become of TVR till the cows come home, my thoughts are with the highly skilled and dedicated workforce (I know I worked there for a while) that have been brutaly discarded by the Russian oligarch Nikolai Smolenski.

I read an interesting story published on the Net, a dealer comments on the first meeting with Smolenski:

I could see it coming, which is why we got out of our "Relationship" with TVR. When Peter Wheeler and Ben Samuelson owned and ran TVR, nomatter what anyone thought of them, the product, or the business, it was always clear that they were dyed in the wool motor sports enthusiasts. TVR had a "British Bulldog" quality that carried the product above that which it's build quality deserved. The Tuscan Challenge, GT Racing and Le-Mans were the raison d'etre of the Blackpool factory, and alot of TVR owners were on the same wavelength.

The Russian "tycoon" millionaire took a fancy to an overseas (for him) investment in a stable country (compared with his) knowing nothing about cars other than he liked the look of them and their power. Russians do have an appetite for Power.

I smelt it going wrong when the first "Dealer Meeting" took place at Blackpool. All 14 Dealers went up to there, with the expectation of meeting the new owner, and hearing his plans. He didn't show up, and left Ben Samuelson to make his excuses. Lots of froth and waffle in place of seeing the New Leader didn’t quite work.

The next meeting was even more bizarre. All the Dealers were ushered into the meeting room upstairs to sit around a makeshift boardroom table surrounded by varied chairs sufficient to get all the bums on seats. Some chairs were couch-like, so that if you sat in one, you would be seated at the table in a midget-like position. Ho-hum, very TVR. This meeting had been called by, and was supposed to be chaired by David Saxton, the newly appointed MD, but he had been sacked the week before by Smolenski,. So Ben was recalled from “special projects” for the day.

I spoke to David subsequently, and he told me that he had been sacked over the phone, by Smolenskis PA, whilst actually at a TVR track day. I had the distinct impression (later reinforced) that young Smolenski subscribed to the “Joe Stalin” school of business management, whereby you encourage people to take on responsibility and authority until you feel it challenges you own. Then they have to go. I guess redundancy is better than a salt mine.
So anyway, here we all were in the boardroom at TVR, with Ben Samuelson, expecting Nicolai Smolenski to arrive and unveil his vision for the future.

Ben starts the meeting talking of all the usual nuts & bolts of marketing, stocking, demos etc etc, when someone sat in the empty chair on my right. Thinking it was a latecomer, I turned to look and it was the young Nikolai. He had come into the meeting through an internal door. I thought “This is great; we’re going to hear it from the Cossacks mouth!”

As this was the time that a huge banner had appeared outside the Factory saying “Orgasmic Living” I took the chance to ask what it was about. “This what it is like to own a TVR” he said. I asked “do you not think that we have a female market too?” he replied “they can buy if they want” and continued texting in his phone without looking at me. He looked for all the world like a sixth former texting his mates in a boring lesson.
Nevertheless, I thought, any minute now, Ben will introduce him, and he will tell us the Grand Vision.

After about 10 minutes, Smolenski muttered (not to anyone in particular, just out loud to himself) “I have to go” and got up and walked out.
He didn’t speak to any one, he didn’t acknowledge anyone and his arrival and departure was not mentioned by his MD who carried on talking throughout. Ben did a great job of acting as though it was nothing, but it was obviously an embarrassment. It was weird.

That’s when I thought “There’s something not right here…”

Subsequent meetings were even more bizarre, but I don’t want to bore PH readers with more of the same, but it was evident to us that without strong, clear, involved owner/driver management, TVR was going to loose momentum, then drift towards the rocks. The journeyman MD David Oxley was the wrong man for the job, but the right yes man for Smolenski.

Lets hope that TVR gets reborn stronger and leaner that before, but I wouldn’t invest a penny in anything run by Smolenski. However, he’s not short of money, so I’m sure that won’t bother him. It’s just a pity that a British car maker with potential, has had the potential flushed away. No doubt it will be a profitable brand for something, but not cars.

In fact I think I saw the future for the TVR Brand in a petrol station last month; TVR LED flashlights. What next? - We can look out for TVR Jeans, razors, caps, MP3 players etc etc. Easy to make in China, no warranty problems, and better margins.

His thoughts not mine but make of it what you will.

To summarise I think the TVR workforce worked wonders operating in a less than ideal commercial climate for years and deserve far better than this!

[tartan_rob]

well said.

[david7m]

I think they'll struggle to build the cars anywhere else without the current work force/experience....on the assumption they intent for TVR to be a going concern....

Dave

[simple1]

Think the entire thing went tits when the Government forced them to conform with EU legislation and offer 3 yr guarantee..........