Speech to group 3: August 28th 2003 in Bentley showroom at 15.00

Crewe August 25th 2003

Good afternoon everyone and thank you for coming to visit Bentley at Crewe.

When I unveiled the Continental GT at our press conference in Paris last year, I revealed two objectives for 2003: to win Le Mans and to take the world by storm with the Continental GT. I am delighted to remind you that on the 15th June 2003 we achieved the first objective.

As well as the simple joy of winning the world's oldest and greatest endurance race, this victory announced to the world that Bentley is back as a major force, competing strongly for the loyalties of a new target audience. And winning.

And the Continental GT. Judging by the response so far, I believe that we are taking the world by storm, just as we had planned.

We have captivated our target audience with the design and specification of the car, as our order and deposit books prove beyond doubt. Today, you have had the opportunity to discover for yourself that the experience of driving the Continental GT is even more impressive than the specifications might suggest.

What I would now like to go through is the level of investment in the company that has made the Continental GT possible. An investment not just in new tooling and machinery, but in a complete production philosophy that gives our greatest asset of all - the people of Crewe - the environment they deserve to use their unique skills to the full.

Thanks to the investments made in the factory and the marque, the people who work for Bentley have the working environment and the resources that their loyalty and skills deserve. It is our proud claim that on the new production lines of the Continental GT at Crewe, state-of-the-art production technology and traditional craft techniques combine to create a unique Grand Tourer to exceptional standards of precision and performance.

Earlier, I described the people of Crewe as the greatest asset of all for this great and enduring car company. The men and women who work for Bentley have a level of commitment and passion that makes Crewe unique in the automotive industry. The factory at Crewe has been described as 'the world's largest car showroom': if so, then they are undoubtedly the reason, and their pride and knowledge are, for many visitors, the highlights of a visit.

That is why, alongside the investment in facilities and cutting edge technology, our key priority has been the 2,800 associates who work at Crewe. Of the need to gear up for Continental GT production, we have recruited over 1,000 people in the past three years and each new recruit has had bespoke Bentley training and development programmes to help him or her understand, and one day pass on, the Bentley way of working.

When it purchased the company in 1998, Volkswagen pledged a £500m investment programme in Crewe and its products. So far, £217m has been invested in manufacturing the Continental GT, of which £154m has been committed to supplier tooling. The remaining £63m has been spent at Crewe, and represents the largest single investment made at the factory since it was built as an aero engine factory in 1938.

No part of the site has remained unchanged. The 18-month programme has involved over 400 contractors, and during its course over 12,000 tonnes of rubble and waste were removed. As well as changes to the main production line, new roadways, a lorry park and 2 new logistics centres have been constructed for an investment of £8m to accommodate the significant increase in volume of deliveries to the site.

Almost every manufacturing area of the Crewe site has either been refurbished or rebuilt. The pilot hall, painted body store, assembly line, test facilities, leather shop, engine assembly line, quality centre, logistics centres and vehicle bond hall are new, whilst the wood shop and brightware areas have been refurbished and expanded. The vehicle engineering centre, styling studio and pre-delivery inspection area are also all new.

The £63m investment in Crewe has brought about radical changes throughout the site. Alterations to the buildings and site cost £14m. The expansion of the wood shop and new equipment such as laser-cutters and automated lacquer spraying chambers cost £6m, whilst the new Quality Centre, logistics and related areas account for £15m.

Throughout all these areas the individuality and the craft ethic of Bentley and Crewe has remained of central importance. In the car assembly line, sub-assembly areas and the leather shop, the £18m investment has been devoted to giving people the tools and environment they need to do an outstanding job.

The engine assembly area cost £10 million and we are proud to say that automation has been used only in two areas of the assembly line: Everywhere else the judgement of skilled human beings prevails, as is entirely appropriate for the making of a Bentley.

For many owners, the name Bentley stands for an interior of hand-stitched leather and mirror-matched wood veneer of incomparable colour and finish. Within the wood and leather shops at Crewe, there exists a level of skill and experience in the handling of the finest natural materials that has no match anywhere else in the automotive world.

For the Continental GT the manufacturing challenge was to retain the originality of a hand-crafted Bentley interior in a new market segment.

The £6m invested in the wood shop, now doubled in size, helps to achieve both aims. For example, the laser that cuts the wafer-thin sheets of fine wood veneer to shape is both more precise and less wasteful than the old press cutter method.

Yet human judgement and craftsmanship are still vital; each wood set for a Continental GT takes 18 hours to complete, more than required to produce many mass-market cars from start to finish.

The premium grade hides that we use for our upholstery are now cut by computer-guided lasers, rather than cutter forms positioned by hand. But it is a human being, not a computer scanner, who checks every hide for flaws and marks them with fluorescent tape for the cutter to avoid. Advanced technology under the guidance of human judgement; that's the unique alchemy of Crewe and Bentley.

The Continental GT is still therefore a hand-crafted car. But we knew that the new audience for this world-beating machine would not accept any inconsistencies in build quality as a result. That's why we considered it essential to have a quality centre at the heart of the Crewe site, to ensure that the Continental GT will meet or exceed benchmark standards of precision and consistency in manufacture.

The facility, which cost £4m, has the ability to simulate and test for sunshine, humidity and weathering, and has a complete range of mechanical testing and digital imaging microscopes with up to a thousand times magnification. The Quality Centre can measure the accuracy of components from entire car bodies down to tiny components to an accuracy of ½ micron.

Understandably, much of yesterday and today and tomorrow has been taken up with the Continental GT and what it means for Bentley. But the Volkswagen Group's investment has also given us fresh impetus at the very highest price sectors of the automotive world, with Arnage and Bentley Mulliner. The investment in the Arnage Series 2, for example, launched last year in Detroit, amounted to more than the entire original Arnage/Silver Seraph development budget, and the resulting improvements in quality and performance are evidence of our on-going commitment to the sector. With Arnage we are able to offer the very highest levels of bespoke car making to a small but significant owner group, and we have no intention of abandoning this sector to others.
Meanwhile, the first Continental GTs will soon be leaving the factory gates en route to owners throughout the world. But how many will this be? As I have said before, we will always build one less than demand. That said, we would anticipate sales to be in the order of 3, 500 Continental GTs next year, although with our flexible production system we could manufacture up to 5, 000. Of course Arnage will continue and we expect sales of this model to be around 800.

Continental GT is the first true modern Bentley ... the fastest four seat coupe in the world ... a blend of the very latest design and engineering skills, and of unique craftsmanship skills built up over the decades.

A Bentley that I believe will continue to take the world by storm as people have the opportunity to experience it first hand. A Bentley that will live up to the expectations of our new generation of customers. A Bentley that we hope lived up to your expectations when you drove it today...