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Rover BMW has agreed to sell Rover to the Phoenix Consortium of Midlands-based businessmen for a nominal sum, which is expected to secure 8,000 jobs at Longbridge. 10-May-2000 BMW is to relocate the sales and marketing division of its Rover subsidiary from Warwick to its Bracknell headquarters, which will affect more than 300 staff. 01-Feb-2000 Rover is said to be facing the possibility of a £1.2bn buy-out from a consortium of UK and US venture capitalists if parent company BMW decides to sell the business. 27-Jan-2000 Rover is planning a £40m railway scheme at its Solihull manufacturing plant, including a 2.5-mile line and terminal facility to link to the West Coast main line. 17-Jan-2000 BMW is preparing plans for a new shake-up at its Rover subsidiary, which is expected to lead to further heavy job losses, an integration of dealership functions, and a cut in the proportion of UK manufactured parts. 11-Jan-2000 BMW has announced plans to halve Rover Group purchases from the UK motor components industry, which will result in suppliers losing up to £2bn of business and the possible loss of thousands of jobs. 17-Dec-1999 BMW is to go-ahead with a £1.5bn investment programme at the Rover plant in Longbridge, despite the European Commission investigation into the government's £152m aid package for the project. 10-Dec-1999 BMW is said to be planning to cut a further 1,800 jobs at Rover over the next three years, by shifting engine production to the new Hams Hall plant and by outsourcing the seating for its new small car. 12-Nov-1999 Caterpillar Logistics Services is to extend its Desford warehouse facilities in Leicestershire having won a contract to distribute parts for Rover, with the creation of 300 jobs. 01-Oct-1999 BMW is to scrap the Rover Group name, probably in favour of BMW Britain, and has also announced plans to introduce contracts in euros for UK component suppliers. 11-Sep-1999 Rover has announced plans to spend £400m setting up an assembly line and body shop at Longbridge to manufacture the new Mini. 15-Jul-1999 BMW has confirmed plans to spend £3.3bn on its Rover subsidiary by rebuilding the Longbridge plant and securing about 9,000 jobs, and the government is providing a £152m aid package. 24-Jun-1999 Rover has been refused planning permission to set up a storage park for 12,000 new vehicles at its Hams Hall site, and is now seeking an alternative location. 28-May-1999 Rover is creating 800 new jobs at its Oxford plant in order to build up production of the new R75 saloon car. 27-May-1999 Rover is planning to integrate its tooling operations with parent company BMW, raising the prospect of job losses at its Swindon plant. 21-May-1999 Rover is planning a £5m extension at its Land Rover panel pressing plant in Solihull, and Tilbury Douglas is expected to win the construction contract. 20-May-1999 Unipart has agreed to buy back the 19% stake currently held by Rover in a £24m deal. 09-Apr-1999 BMW has agreed a deal with the government that will secure the future of Rover's Longbridge car plant, and it is thought to involve about £150m of government aid for a £1.7bn investment at the plant. 01-Apr-1999 Unipart, the car parts and logistics company, is planning to buy back the 19% stake held by Rover. 17-Mar-1999 Rover is offering to transfer up to 44 workers to Cowley from the Bargoed car components factory in South Wales when it closes next month. 10-Mar-1999 Rover has announced a series of measures designed to improve its performance, and there will be a greater focus on new products, marketing, productivity, public relations, and quality. 10-Mar-1999 BMW has applied for about £200m of UK government aid, raising hopes that it is planning to rescue the Rover car plant at Longbridge. 06-Mar-1999 BMW is said to be planning to go ahead with a $2.7bn project to replace the Rover 200 and 400 models, although it may decide to locate manufacturing in Hungary or another country in preference to Longbridge. 26-Feb-1999 Rover is to sell off stocks of selected 200 and 400 car models at about 9% below normal prices, in preparation for the introduction of T-registration models in March. 11-Feb-1999 Rover's Longbridge plant is facing an uncertain future again, following a boardroom reorganisation at parent company BMW that is said to have been prompted by the slow progress being made at Rover. 06-Feb-1999 Rover is to suspend production of two Land Rover models due to a fall in demand, but expects to make up for this in the second half of the year. 27-Jan-1999 Rover is planning to close its car parts plant in Bargoed, south Wales, with the loss of 45 jobs. 22-Jan-1999 Rover is linking up with Caterpillar Logistics to set up a major new car parts warehouse at Desford near Hinckley, which will create 250 jobs. 13-Jan-1999 Rover has told its suppliers that production will be cut by 10% to 450,000 cars this year, and a new joint sourcing department will be formed with its parent company BMW in Munich. 09-Jan-1999 BMW has confirmed plans to apply for up £200m of government subsidy to develop a new Rover medium-range car at Longbridge. 06-Jan-1999 Rover will not launch the new 75 model until July, and the two-month delay is put down to difficulties in meeting BMW's strict rules on quality. 14-Dec-1998 Rover workers have voted in favour of a package of job losses at the Longbridge car plant, in return for a £2bn investment by parent company BMW. 12-Dec-1998 Rover is considering three potential sites in the Midlands to set up a new parts distribution centre, and it would create up to 400 jobs when it opens in 2002. 08-Dec-1998 BMW has reached agreement with unions to secure the future of the Rover factory in Longbridge, and there are expected to be up to 2,5000 job losses. 27-Nov-1998 Rover is planning to announce substantial cost-saving measures over the next few weeks, and there could be a large number of redundancies among the 18,000 employees at its Longbridge car plant. 21-Oct-1998 Rover is recalling about 20,000 MGFs due to a seat belt problem. 17-Oct-1998 Rover has confirmed plans to cut back car production at Longbridge in December, and up to 8,000 workers will be paid to stay at home for an additional two weeks at Christmas. 01-Oct-1998 LDV has won a £14m order from Rover to supply body pressings for the new Discovery model. 28-Sep-1998 Rover is to reduce production by more than 26,000 cars below planned levels from September to the end of the year, with output of the slow-selling Rover 400 being cut by more than a quarter. 28-Jul-1998 Rover is to cut about 1,500 jobs, begin four-day working at three of its UK car plants, and increase the number of components bought from abroad due to the effects of the strength of sterling. 24-Jul-1998 Rover is to buy more car parts from suppliers in continental Europe due to the effects of the strong pound, but has denied rumours that it would consider moving production abroad. 08-Jul-1998 Rover is creating 1,000 jobs in order to produce its new executive car at its Cowley plant in Oxford, and is expanding capacity to build 150,000 units a year. 21-May-1998 Rover has agreed a flexible working arrangement for the new BMW engine plant in Warwickshire, which will involve workers being credited or debited with the hours worked above or below a 37-hour week. 22-Apr-1998 Rover is planning a £200m investment to produce the R40 executive car at its Cowley plant near Oxford. 28-Nov-1997 Land Rover is taking on an additional 300 workers at Solihull to cope with higher than expected demand for its new Freelander vehicle. 03-Oct-1997 BMW has unveiled details of the new Mini, which will be made by Rover, and announced plans to return to Formula One motor racing in partnership with the UK's Williams team. 09-Sep-1997 Rover's car sales rose by 5% to 250,382 in the first-half of 1997, with exports up 10% and accounting for 55% of sales, while UK sales were down 2.4%. 29-Jul-1997 Rover has announced that its Longbridge plant in Birmingham will be used to assemble the new Mini car, which is due for launch in 2000. 25-Jul-1997 Rover has announced that its new small 4-wheel-drive vehicle will be called the Freelander and will be launched at the Frankfurt motor show in September. 18-Mar-1997 Rover sold more vehicles abroad last year than in the UK, with exports at a record 54% of sales. 29-Jan-1997 Rover Group is to recruit a further 100 specialist engineers to develop new cars at its engineering centre in Gaydon. 05-Dec-1996 BMW has selected the Midlands as the location to build a £400m car engine plant, which will make a new generation of four-cylinder engines for Rover and BMW cars after the year 2000. 16-Nov-1996 Rover has agreed a 3.5% pay deal plus improved employment conditions with trade unions that represent 40,000 workers. 18-Oct-1996 Rover has announced plans for a new Land Rover model, probably called the Highlander, in a move expected to secure 10,000 UK motor industry jobs. 16-Oct-1996 BMW is to invest £3bn in Rover, boosting output by 50% to 750,000 vehicles a year, with the Rover 800, 600, 400 and 200 ranges being replaced by front-wheel drive cars using just two body platforms. 10-Oct-1996 Rover is to spend £400m on the development of a replacement for the Mini small car, and expects to launch it in 2001. 02-Oct-1996 Rover is seeking government aid of £60m in order to set up a £400m engine plant at Hams Hill in the west Midlands, which would be used to help it increase vehicle output from 500,000 per year to at least 750,000 over the next five years. 30-Sep-1996 Rover plans to increase its presence in South America, South East Asia and Eastern Europe, having just reported a 6% rise in world sales in the first quarter. 24-Apr-1996 Rover is to cut back 20% of its dealer network, with the loss of over 100 dealers, as it continues to see market share fall as it goes upmarket. 05-Apr-1996 BMW is to invest about £500m a year in Rover for the next five years, with new models including a small Land Rover and replacements for the Rover 600 and the Mini, creating an unspecified number of new jobs. 22-Mar-1996 Rover plans to move up to 150 workers from Cowley to its Swindon pressings plant, and is offering them £4,000 each to move. 02-Feb-1996 Rover is to quadruple output of the 200 series at Longbridge, while cutting back on the 400 model. 26-Jan-1996 Land Rover increased production by 35% in 1995 to over 127k vehicles, benefiting from a recent surge in demand from the US and Japan. 29-Dec-1995 Rover is taking on a further 300 engineers to help develop new models, as it responds to the decline in its relationship with Honda. 04-Nov-1995 Rover is planning an advanced paint centre at Cowley, with start-up in 1997, at a cost of £100m. 20-Oct-1995 Rover has decided not to launch another takeover bid for Unipart. 16-Oct-1995 Rover is said to be planning to increase its offer for Unipart by the end of the year. 06-Oct-1995 Rover still wants to regain control of Unipart, in which it has a 20% stake. 22-Sep-1995 BMW plans to develop its Rover subsidiary along the lines of Audi, although it will take 5 years before Rover launches BMW-influenced models. 18-Sep-1995 BMW has appointed a new chairman at Rover to lift sales and start preparing for the next generation of cars. 08-Sep-1995 More from the Motor sector Related pages: Tallent Engineering Optare LucasVarity Northgate British Car Auctions The information on this page comes from the UK Activity Report. 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