New era for BMW's Rosslyn plant

MOTORING NEWS - The BMW Group has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to South Africa by announcing that it will invest a total of R6-billion at its Rosslyn plant in Pretoria.

The investment is one of the biggest in the local automotive industry. It will enable the plant to produce the next generation of the BMW X3, which will be sold locally and exported to various countries.

The production of the next generation BMW X3 at Rosslyn will replace the BMW 3 Series Sedan, which will now be allocated to other plants in the global BMW production network.

"The potential for Africa as a future market for exports as well as the newly reviewed Automotive Production and Development Programme (APDP) enables South Africa to play a significant role in the manufacturing industry and production of high quality cars.

"This is evident in the JD Power Platinum Plant Quality award we received earlier this year. Our passion for perfection at BMW Plant Rosslyn has demonstrated that we are highly competitive in the global BMW production network both in terms of cost of production and quality.

"We are excited about the future prospects of the plant Rosslyn and can not wait to start with the production of the next generation BMW X3. We believe there is an opportunity to increase the localisation of components when we start producing this car," said Tim Abbott, managing director of BMW Group South Africa.

More than R3-billion will be invested in new state-of-the-art facilities and operations of the plant. An additional R3-billion will be for suppliers, launch costs and training of associates.

Dr Ian Robertson, member of the board of management of BMW AG responsible for BMW sales and marketing and a previous managing director of BMW Group South Africa, says that the BMW X models have proved to be very desirable, ever since the BMW X5 founded the Sports Activity Vehicle (SAV) segment in 1999.

"These vehicles now represent some of the most successful model ranges in the BMW line-up, accounting for 28% of our total global sales. This realignment of production at Rosslyn is in response to the continuing growth of the SAV segment worldwide. We will be expanding the X-range in future."

Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies said the investment is testament to the important partnership that exists between business and Government as well as the role that business is playing in the development of the economy.

Production at the BMW plant in Rosslyn dates back to 1968, when Praetor Monteerders began assembling cars, utilising BMW engines and drive-trains fitted to Hans Glas sheet metal pressed and shipped from Dingolfing in Germany. In 1973, BMW AG took over full shareholding and established BMW Group South Africa (Pty) Ltd with the plant becoming the BMW Group's first manufacturing facility outside Germany.

Since then, the BMW Group has been a major investor in South Africa and its people, with Rosslyn moving from a limited vehicle-production plant that merely assembled vehicles with a few customisation possibilities for the local market, to a world-class plant, capable of producing highly customised cars for customers across the globe.
With the third generation BMW 3 Series (E36), the plant produced around 92 000 units from 1994 to 1998. The fourth generation BMW 3 Series (E46) was built between 1998 and 2005 and Rosslyn was responsible for approximately 269 000 units. The fifth generation BMW 3 Series (E90) ended production with around 342 000 units from 2005 to 2012. Since the start of production of the sixth generation BMW 3 Series (F30) in 2012, around 200 000 units have been built here as well.

In 2014, BMW 3 Series Sedan production volume at Plant Rosslyn increased by 1,6% to 68 721 while exports increased by over 17%. This mass export secured BMW South Africa's position as the country's leading exporter of premium vehicles. For 2015, production of around 70 000 units is projected.

BMW Group South Africa directly and indirectly employs over 42 000 people (3 000 associates at the plant and at the national sales organisation, 4 000 dealer staff and more than 35 000 first-tier supplier employees).

In April 2015, BMW Group South Africa was named the number one employer in the automotive industry for the second consecutive year in the Universum Most Attractive Employer Awards for 2015. In addition, for the third consecutive year, the South African Graduate Employers Association (SAGEA) Graduate Recruitment Awards, bestowed the honour of Employer of Choice in the Automotive Industry to BMW South Africa in June 2015.