NOT much has been written about the operation to build Maestros in Bulgaria, but at long last we're able to put the record straight....
Thanks to an ex-Rover Group executive, we have been able to piece together the story of the Roadacar assembly operation in Bulgaria and conclude why it failed in the way it did.
Full of Eastern promise...
AFTER years of consistent retreat, the Rover Group found itself in comparatively safe hands during the mid-Nineties. Years of tight, efficient management and careful financial control under the Stewardship of British Aerospace (BAe) had instilled a climate of careful spending.
While production of the Maestro and Montego was being wound down at the Cowley factory in Oxford, plans were afoot to set up an assembly operation overseas. Various options were discussed, but in the end a deal initially led by the Bulgarian government to set-up the CKD (Complete Knock Down) assembly operation in the city of Varna on the Black Sea coast. Varna being ideal for the transport by sea for parts from the UK until locally sourced parts could be developed and proven. A potential site for the factory had also been identified next to a factory that, prior to the collapse of the wall, manufactured forklift-trucks for the whole of the Eastern Bloc. Therefore some local labour expertise also existed.
The plant was expected to produce 10,000 cars annually, and investment in the plan was estimated at $20m, the biggest foreign investment in Bulgaria thus far since the end of the Cold War.
According to a Rover Group executive closely involved with the project, a brand new factory was built to accomodate a Maestro production line, and a Rover Group (ex-pat) team of eight people was set-up in country, supported by additional expertise from Rover Cowley. The factory building was started in late 1994, and volume production commenced in June 1995.
A new factory in Varna, Bulgaria was built especially to house the production
line.
The RODACAR Company was 51 per cent Rover Group and 49 per cent Daru Group owned. Daru was a Bulgarian Company that owned a bank and also were the main agents for BMW in Bulgaria. Rover Group provided the Manufacturing expertise and Daru group provided the sales expertise/outlets for the Maestro.
Varna was opened by the Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev on the 8th September 1995. The British Ambassador to Bulgaria (Roger Short) and various senior Rover Group board members also attended. By this time the factory was producing quality vehicles succesfully to projected volume, cost and quality targets - and most importantly, the total project came in on time and within planned budgets. The production line was staffed mainly by Bulgarian engineering graduates, who were all very keen to learn about car production. He said: "The co-operation between the in-country team from Rover Group (ex-pats) and the support from Cowley Manufacturing Engineering was absolutely first class."
Bulgarian President, Zhelyu Zhelev (centre) opened the plant in September 1995.
That would probably explain why the Varna-produced Maestro was 'at least' equal in quality index to the last examples built in Cowley - a fact confirmed by a Rover internal quality audit. (Ex-pats would probably say it was better)
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...the Varna-produced Maestro was a higher quality item, equal to the last examples built in Cowley - a fact confirmed by a Rover internal quality audit. |
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The factory was fully equipped and state of the art. "It had a Paint facility, Trim and Final Finish, Rolling road, PDI - and was a total entity of factory and its workers, it all came together excellently."
However, the car failed in the marketplace. A combination of weaknesses in the sales and marketing strategy, uncompetitive pricing for various reasons, and the arrival of a serious rival in the form of the Skoda Felicia proved to be the death-knell for the Maestro. The new Skoda particularly hit hard - it was more modern, priced slightly lower, and also had better aftermarket support.
Skoda, then being owned by VAG, imported the Felicia from Czechoslovakia to Bulgaria at 50 per cent of normal import duty, whereas the Bulgarian government refused to action a previous commitment to reduce the import duties on Maestro parts imported from the UK, while local sourcing was established.
Our contact added: "There was also the non-commitment by the Bulgarian government to honour substantial, previously promised, departmental orders for thousands of the vehicles - a measure that would have raised the profile of the Maestro in Bulgaria."
Opinion is that the major causes of closure were the previously mentioned concession to Czechoslovakia/VAG for importing the Skoda, the reneging of the government to temporarily ease import duty on Maestro parts from the UK and the refusal to confirm major government orders.
Production ceased on 4th April 1996, after 2200 cars had been built - when the factory was mothballed, 250 assembly workers lost their jobs. Several years later, the unfinished cars and some of the production facility was returned to the UK, where it was subsequently sold off to Parkway Services in Ledbury. The sad thing is, Varna could have been a useful addition to the Group's armoury despite the failure of the Maestro: "I could never understand why Land Rover never picked it up as a KD plant for Eastern Europe. I know it was proposed by a few people."
In the UK, many people within the company held the opinion that the Bulgarian operation failed because it was poorly managed. One insider told us: "It's interesting, but also rather puzzling to hear such positive reports about Varna. The word coming back to Canley was that it was near impossible to work with the Bulgarians. They didn't turn up for meetings, and if they did, they never did the things they'd committed to. They had no concept of business as we know it. I was told that production never really got off the ground. The photographs I was sent of the factory didn't look remotely world-class, but rather derelict and run-down..."
The truth would appear to be somewhat different from that widely held opinion - the factory cannot have been derelict, as it was purpose built for the job, and the local engineers and workforce were all keen according to our executive who was intimately involved with the project..
Whatever the case, the end of the Maestro's production in Bulgaria was a tragedy for the local economy: "It was devastating for Varna, and also for Rover Group, to close what was a first class Manufacturing facility with a well trained, motivated work-force which had produced to planned performance levels. It had also been the Rover Group's first overseas venture for many years."
The north western corner wing of the Varna factory in 1995 - several finished
Maestros can be seen parked inside the compound.
With thanks to: an ex-Rover executive and Andrew Rozeik for their help in compiling this feature.