March 2013 brought about the 100th anniversary of the Oxford MINI plant in the UK. The MINI factory came a long way in its 100 years of existence and over 11.65 million cars were produced here since 1913.
Today the Oxford Plant has 3700 associates that manufacture over 900 MINIs per day and were responsible for over 2.25 million MINIs sold by the BMW owned car company.
The first car ever build in this factory was a Bullnose Morris Oxford that rolled out of production on 28 March 1913. Following that car were a series of famous British brands like: MG, Wolseley, Riley, Austin, Austin Healey, Mini, Vanden Plas, Princess, Triumph, Rover and Sterling, without mentioning the founding marque Morris and MINI. However an outsider was also built here and that was Honda. The Japanese car was produced here in the '80s for a short period of time.
Over the past 100 years the Oxford Plant had 8 custodians: the founder, William Morris and his company, Morris Motors that had the company until 1952 when the company merged with arch-rival Austin to form the British Motor Corporation. After that, in 1967 the British Motor Corporation became British Motor Holdings after merging with Jaguar and in 1968 this new group merged again with the Leyland truck company and created the British Leyland Motor Corporation that now included Triumph and Rover.
Finally, after a lot of mergers, sales and tricks the group was in 1994 sold to BMW and thus created the contemporary MINI. Nowadays the Oxford Plant is responsible for most MINIs on the road and produces the MINI hatchback, Convertible, Clubman, Clubvan, Roadster and Coupe.
The first car ever build in this factory was a Bullnose Morris Oxford that rolled out of production on 28 March 1913. Following that car were a series of famous British brands like: MG, Wolseley, Riley, Austin, Austin Healey, Mini, Vanden Plas, Princess, Triumph, Rover and Sterling, without mentioning the founding marque Morris and MINI. However an outsider was also built here and that was Honda. The Japanese car was produced here in the '80s for a short period of time.
Over the past 100 years the Oxford Plant had 8 custodians: the founder, William Morris and his company, Morris Motors that had the company until 1952 when the company merged with arch-rival Austin to form the British Motor Corporation. After that, in 1967 the British Motor Corporation became British Motor Holdings after merging with Jaguar and in 1968 this new group merged again with the Leyland truck company and created the British Leyland Motor Corporation that now included Triumph and Rover.
Finally, after a lot of mergers, sales and tricks the group was in 1994 sold to BMW and thus created the contemporary MINI. Nowadays the Oxford Plant is responsible for most MINIs on the road and produces the MINI hatchback, Convertible, Clubman, Clubvan, Roadster and Coupe.