Celebration of 110th Anniversary

12th July 2023

BMW Group Plant Oxford chalked up 110 years of car-making at the site in March this year. To help the Cowley plant celebrate this milestone, Sunday 23rd July there will be a ‘Family Day’ where associates working at BMW Group Plant Oxford can bring their families to see where they work.

It all started in 1913

A milestone was reached on 28 March 1913 when the Bullnose Morris Oxford rolled off the production line, marking the beginning of car manufacturing at the factory. Over the years, the renowned Plant Oxford has been responsible for producing vehicles from various iconic British brands, and even a Japanese brand. These include MG, Wolseley, Riley, Austin, Austin Healey, MINI, Vanden Plas, Princess, Triumph, Rover, Sterling, and Honda, in addition to the founding marque Morris and MINI. The factory's subsidiary, the Pressed Steel Company, located within the Cowley complex, also manufactured bodyshells for Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, MG, Standard-Triumph, Ford, Hillman, and even produced tooling dies for Alfa Romeo.

WW2 and how Plant Oxford contributed to the war effort

During World War 2, the plant played a significant role in supporting the war effort by producing various essential items, including Tiger Moth aircraft, Bofors guns, nautical mines, parachutes, jerry cans, and aircraft sub-assemblies. The Spitfire and Hurricane fighter aircrafts damaged in action received over 80,000 repairs at Cowley.

110 years of manufacturing and eight owners

Over the past 110 years, the Cowley manufacturing site has changed hands eight times. It started with founder William Morris, who owned the factory directly and through Morris Motors until 1952 when Morris merged with its rival Austin to form the British Motor Corporation. Morris, later known as Lord Nuffield, served as chairman for six months before retiring and passed away in 1963. During the early 1960s, the plant employed a staggering 28,000 workers who produced a diverse range of models.

In 1967, the British Motor Corporation merged with Jaguar, resulting in the establishment of British Motor Holdings, which, in turn, merged with the Leyland truck company in the following year. This merger created the British Leyland Motor Corporation, which underwent several name changes and ultimately became the Rover Group in 1986. Under the leadership of Graham Day, the company was privatised for the Thatcher government, with the sale to British Aerospace completed in 1988. Later on, British Aerospace sold the group, including Land Rover, to BMW in 1994.

64 years of MINI production at Plant Oxford

The first MINI rolled off the production line at Cowley, now called Plant Oxford in June 1959. There were 602,817 MINI’s built between 1959 and 1968, before production was moved to Longbridge.

Plant Oxford and the re-birth of the Mini

After purchasing the Rover Group in 1994, BMW Group made significant investments, and prioritised developing a successor for the MINI. However, various challenges, such as unfavourable exchange rates, declining sales, and uncertain government support in the UK, led BMW to sell Rover and Land Rover in 2000. BMW retained the MINI brand, Plant Oxford, the associated Swindon pressings factory, and the new Hams Hall engine plant, which was preparing for production.

BMW relaunched the brand in 2001 with the debut of the new MINI Hatch, and the first new MINIs rolled off the production line at Plant Oxford on 26 April, 2001.

Plant Oxford, a national treasure

Plant Oxford has not only contributed to the nation's industrial activities but has also brought prosperity to many countries worldwide. Over its 100-year history, the factory has provided direct employment to hundreds of thousands of employees and created tens of thousands of indirect jobs. The plant has a remarkable track record of exporting cars, with Morris products alone accounting for nearly 30% of the nation's total exports in the mid-1930s. In 1950, the plant produced its 100,000th overseas model, a Morris Minor, and by 1962, the British Motor Corporation was exporting 320,000 vehicles annually to over 170 countries, with Plant Oxford playing a significant role. In the early 1960s, BMC was the largest exporter in the UK, just as Morris had been in the 1930s.

Plant Oxford has also made substantial contributions beyond car production. Founder William Morris, later known as Lord Nuffield, was a renowned philanthropist. At the Cowley facility, he manufactured iron lungs to donate to hospitals. Moreover, Morris established organisations such as Nuffield Health, the Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust, and Nuffield College at Oxford University. His philanthropic contributions are estimated to be worth approximately £11 billion in today's values. Nuffield Health and other philanthropic enterprises established by Morris continue to thrive.

Plant Oxford and its iconic place in automotive history

Cowley has been associated with several prominent figures in the automotive industry. Sir Alec Issigonis, the designer of the Morris Minor and the MINI, was one of the notable individuals who worked at the factory. Leonard Lord, who later became the head of the British Motor Corporation, and Sir George Turnbull, who went on to assist Hyundai in becoming a manufacturer of its own-design cars in the 1970s, also had ties to the plant.

Today it serves as the core of BMW Group's UK production network, which includes the Hams Hall engine factory in Birmingham and the Swindon pressings plant, previously part of Pressed Steel. The network has a promising future, with the Oxford factory set to manufacture the next-generation convertible models and electric vehicles starting from 2027. As part of this plan, production of the Convertible will be relocated from the Netherlands to Oxford, alongside the petrol-powered versions of the upcoming three- and five-door MINI models, which are scheduled to launch from November 2023.

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