BMW change in Britain

As from January 1 1980 BMW Concessionaires (GB) Ltd. will cease to be the controlling force on the sale and service of BMW cars and motor-cycles in this country. At that time BMW in Munich will take over sole control with a new managing director, working from the company’s new £6 million headquarters in Bracknell, Berks.

The new managing director has started work alongside the present incumbent (Anton Hille), who will move onto managing the automotive division of BMW Concessionaires owners TKM. John Wagner, formerly head of Volvo and Audi-VW in Britain, is to be the BMW MD in Britain for the eighties.

Wagner is unlikely to alter very much about the highly successful BMW operation in this country. In 1978 they sold nearly 11,000 cars, 30% of them the most expensive six-cylinder models (a higher proportion than anywhere in the World). Next year a 23% increase in BMW car sales is forecast and the ever-ebullient Hille says the old organisation will go out with promotional guns blazing, such plans including the BMW County Championship with Tom Walkinshaw-modified BMW 323i cars.