At Full Chat

If I could give understandably worried MG Rover dealers one piece of advice, it would be this: get in touch with Kia. The little firm from South Korea needs you nearly as badly as you need it. Did I say little? Twenty years ago, maybe. But so far in 2005 in Britain, Kia has outsold both Longbridge brands, Fiat, Skoda, SEAT and plenty of other long-established companies, including its red-faced bigger brother, Hyundai. Kia's UK arm saw sales growth of 71.5 per cent in 2003 and 57.8 per cent in 2004. This year, it hopes to shift 44,500 cars in Britain, and 100,000 by the end of the decade.

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By Mike Rutherford

27th April 2005

I couldn't help drawing some comparisons with MG Rover when I attended a bullish Kia press conference at Hwasung, South Korea, earlier this month. This is a hungry firm which is keener on world domination than any other company I know now or have encountered in the past. Kia's sales and financial figures, ambitions and sheer audacity are inspiring if you're already one of the firm's insiders, hugely exciting if you're able to jump on the bandwagon (former MG Rover employees and dealers take note), intriguing for the competition and almost amusing to a neutral onlooker such as me.

Considering Kia is only warming up, it ain't doing bad. It's been the world's fastest-growing car maker for the past three years. It already outsells some Japanese brands in Europe, and plans to overtake Nissan by 2010. You probably suspect the Hwasung facility is Kia's one and only Longbridge-like factory. Nothing could be further from the truth. The firm has several plants in South Korea, 15 overseas facilities and is constructing a billion-dollar factory in Slovakia. Last month, MG was begging to be bailed out by the Chinese. Kia already has a plant in China and another set to start production by next year.

Now to the bit you'll really be interested in - the cars. It's fair to say the line-up is far from exhilarating, but it's getting bigger, better and safer, and being manufactured to a far higher standard. Think Nissan levels of build quality today, and I kid you not, Toyota standards in the not-too-distant future. That's the almost clinical approach of this company. Never mind the world's fastest-growing firm, it's also the most confident.

The finances look good too. In 2004, Kia had revenues of ΂£7.7billion, of which seven per cent was ploughed back into research and development. That means Kia's R&D department is, on its own, worth substantially more than what used to be MG Rover, even when the Longbridge firm was pumping out cars. MG Rover had 6,000 workers, most of whom have been dumped on the scrapheap. If you include the staff at sister company Hyundai, Kia has 110,000 employees and growing. There are dramatic and sometimes brutal changes occurring in the global car business. Workers, dealers and customers can fight them and limp on with obsolete brands like Rover. Or they can acknowledge the new world order and wake up to the arrival of the powerful new kids on the block, such as Kia.