Morgan managing director Steve Morris says the British sports car firm is set to meet its sales target in 2014 after sources close to the company suggested new car sales had stalled since the departure of former chief Charles Morgan last October.
Sources told Autocar that while the used car and maintenance parts of Morgan’s business were performing well, it was having a “very difficult year” for new car sales and waiting lists had gone down from around a year to almost nothing.
This, one source said, is because customers are still disgruntled at Charles Morgan’s surprise departure last year, and are uncertain of the direction the company is heading under new management. Subsequently, the source claims the business is “a weekly concern”.
However these are all allegations emphatically denied by Morris, who told Autocar the firm was “on target to achieve budgeted numbers for 2014” and the situation was “very straightforward”, although exact numbers, including the 2014 target set in November 2013, were not revealed.
He did, however, state the mix of sales between the 3 Wheeler and the Malvern-based company's traditional and classic models was good.
He added: “The departure of Charles Morgan has not had any impact on vehicle sales notwithstanding the negative comments that Charles has made in various media platforms from time to time.” He also said he was “disappointed” to learn of the allegations.
On the subject of waiting lists, Morris said there were a lot of “Morgan myths” surrounding this. The company head office officially quotes six months, but depending on the business model of its 60 dealers worldwide this can be shorter or longer.
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Mirror Mirror On The Wall
Morgan cars are named after the the family that founded it, and it has traded successfully for decades, as soon as non family members gained a foothold on the board mutiny and disloyalty took over. I too noticed less new Morgans on the road, and if I were to be a Morgan customer I would feel very uneasy about how the board ousted its head.
There are many examples of companies that is no longer headed by a founding name that are not as successful as when that head was in charge, EasyJet, Virgin, Dell, Mcafee and TVR are but a few.
Denying that the company is in trouble is normal but I also noticed that he did not give specifics with regards to projected sales- Could it be that in light of the departure of Morgan that they revised down their sales target and so as to achieve them? It also would be interesting to learn of the previous 2 years waiting list at that would be a sign as to the desirability.
Pricing is the real issue?
The base classic 4/4 model now costs £33k and the Plus 4 costs upwards of £36k and most will come out well above those figures with options. Fun has it's price but that's too much money for what you get.
I rather think Peter Morgan would have kept the cars more affordable and the waiting list longer and not ploughed so much money into flights of fancy?
Morgan boss dispels rumours of stalled sales
If in fact they were in fact 'close' to the company, better that they were far away.
While Charles may have bought some modernisation to the company ,his 'spoilt brat' behaviour bought no credit to him or the company.
He was simply trading on the family name