Efforts to get the owners of British sports car brand TVR to base a new factory in Wales could have wasted millions of pounds.
In 2021 the Welsh Government spent £4.75 million buying a brownfield site, home to an abandoned Techboard factory, plus another £7.6m on refurbishment ready to welcome TVR Automotive's car production facility, and it also gave TVR a £2m loan and invested £500,000 in a stake in the business.
The aim was for the car factory to create 150 jobs locally and produce up to 2,000 sports cars. But TVR Automotive has since decided it won't be based in Wales, and it is reportedly securing a new home in Hampshire.
Adrian Crompton, the auditor general for Wales, informed the Welsh Parliament that selling the 180,000sq ft property for a market value of about £7.5m would net taxpayers a loss of £4.85m.
Ministers have been trying to find an alternative tenant since November. The government said: "It represents a fantastic opportunity for any business to acquire a modern manufacturing facility in the region."
Officials had advised to hold off the refurbishment until a lease was secured from TVR, however in August 2020 the Welsh Government wrote to TVR informing it the government would progress the refurbishment "with or without them", according to Crompton.
Crompton said TVR breached loan requirements in September 2016 because it had not secured a promised £5.5m private-sector investment to start production.
He added that TVR negotiated extensions to the Welsh Government’s loan default requirement, which otherwise would have led to early repayment in full.
In April 2022, TVR paid the Welsh Government £4.3m, covering the £2m loan and accrued interest, which released the company from a requirement to base itself in Wales.
In 2006 the then Russian owner of TVR, Nikolay Smolensky, closed the Blackpool base of TVR, just three years before the death of TVR founder Trevor Wilkinson.
Smolensky talked of moving production to Italy. Then in 2013 Smolensky sold the TVR brand, intellectual property and remaining assets to a consortium led by Les Edgar, who is the one aiming to relaunch the car maker under TVR Automotive Ltd.
An award-winning journalist and editor, with two decades of experience covering the motor retail industry, and accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) plus the National Council for the Training of Journalist (NCTJ)
As editor of AM since 2016, Tim is responsible for its media content, planning and production across AM's multiple channels, including the website, digital reports, webinars, social media and the editorial content of AM's events, Automotive Management Live and the AM Awards. His focus is on interviewing senior leaders of franchised dealer groups and motor manufacturer national sales companies to examine latest developments in UK motor retail.
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