It is rumoured that the cost to Rutland
Partners of buying Millbrook Proving Ground Ltd is just under £15 million; a
figure somewhat lower than some people expected. As part of the consideration, Rutland
will not have to fund the employees’ pension scheme. It has not been disclosed how Rutland will finance the deal.
Also as part
of the deal, there is a continued agreement from
General Motors (GM) and Vauxhall Motors for Millbrook to maintain production of
‘blue light’ vehicles and other conversions. In this event, Millbrook will be a
sub-contractor to Vauxhall.
GM will continue to provide durability, testing and engineering design
work to Millbrook for a range of Vauxhall/Opel vehicles.
Millbrook also will continue to provide programme management services
for Vauxhall’s light commercial vehicle production at the Vauxhall Van Plant in
Luton. This includes 22 current Vauxhall employees who will move across to
Millbrook for such contracts.
It has also
been pledged that there will be no redundancies
and, perhaps, most important of all to Millbrook employees, GM will continue to be responsible for the Millbrook
pension scheme.
The cost of a complete closure of Millbrook Proving Ground Ltd has been
put at £50 million. However, it is unlikely such an event would have taken
place as the facilities on offer represent an attractive proposition to an OEM.
No comments:
Post a Comment