It isn't the end of the road today for Rover as a Brand. The difficulties at Longbridge could spread across the country to dealers and suppliers, but it is possible to pull a rabbit out of a hat.
I am aware of two attempts to generate a rescue other than the government. One is where a business consortium (which is anonymous at the moment) is working with the workforce. There is a second approach which involves some of the second tier managers as part of an MBO.
Ideally both of these groups would work together. What went wrong last time was that the original deal which involved management, workforce and community changed and the management threw out the community and disenfranchised the workforce.
It would be a bad idea to simply do another Phoenix putting the company staight into the hands of management who start extracting money at the same rate as Phoenix did.
It would be possible to establish a rescue bid which involved all the stakeholders and most importantly did not give one group of stakeholders control. That is the key governance issue that will ensure that any rescue lasts.
Sadly it appears that the government do not understand the key business issues. I did a radio interview this morning with Jacqui Smith who clearly did not understand that the Chinese cannot operate a JV on their own.
I am aware of two attempts to generate a rescue other than the government. One is where a business consortium (which is anonymous at the moment) is working with the workforce. There is a second approach which involves some of the second tier managers as part of an MBO.
Ideally both of these groups would work together. What went wrong last time was that the original deal which involved management, workforce and community changed and the management threw out the community and disenfranchised the workforce.
It would be a bad idea to simply do another Phoenix putting the company staight into the hands of management who start extracting money at the same rate as Phoenix did.
It would be possible to establish a rescue bid which involved all the stakeholders and most importantly did not give one group of stakeholders control. That is the key governance issue that will ensure that any rescue lasts.
Sadly it appears that the government do not understand the key business issues. I did a radio interview this morning with Jacqui Smith who clearly did not understand that the Chinese cannot operate a JV on their own.
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