Having ruined the British TVR, Nikolai Smolensky "moved" to Austria

The former owner of the British manufacturer of exclusive sports vehicles TVR Nikolai Smolensk compartment of the production branch, just when she was going to announce bankruptcy by stopping the production of TVR in Britain, writes the British The Times (full text on the website inopressa.ru ). In addition, it turned out that the person, once proclaimed by the Savior of the company, slowly left a few days before its collapse.

Smolensky, who slowly sold his house last summer for 7.7 million pounds (more than $ 14 million) and moved to Vienna, divided the TVR into several companies. Only part of the group - the production unit, which received the new name BlackPool Automotive - was in administrative management.

Employees found that Smolensky resigned to the director of BlackPool Automotive on December 13, less than 10 days before the appearance of managers. The Russian did not belong to the production part of the company, which, as he declared, wanted to save. From the documents of the company, it is clear that on the same day, December 13, Mike Penny, the long -term director of the production department of TVR, also left the post of director of BlackPool Automotive.

David Okly, the managing director of TVR Motors, still owned by Smolensk - confirmed that BlackPool Automotive has recently been sold. Oksli did not name the name of the buyer, but confirmed that it did not belong to Smolensky.

The sale of the Smolensk production part of the TVR immediately before bankruptcy is its goal - to maintain the name and translate production, avoiding the problems and expenses associated with the closure of the plant in Blackpool. But he can come across two obstacles, notes The Times.

Firstly, there are strict rules governing the sale of the company: the unprofitable part cannot simply be saved in anticipation of the upcoming bankruptcy. The buyer must give guarantees that the company he has acquired can fulfill its legal obligations. Secondly, the trade union of transport workers is pressure on Smolensky, achieving the full payment of compensation and vacation pay to the workers who remained when the BlackPool Automotive ruined: it is believed that the total amounts of 3 million pounds. By the middle of last year, Smolensky was believed to lay out almost 30 million pounds on TVR, counting the amount paid to Willer. Now the account is approaching 40 million pounds. The payment of compensation will still increase it. The oligarch with a "infant person", as he calls him The Times, can find that getting rid of the TVR heritage is much more difficult than he thought.

For many years, TVR, located in Blackpool and producing canonical powerful sports cars, was reduced and reduced. Workers knew that the company is in a crisis. But before Christmas, the last blow was inflicted. 200 workers, who remained from almost a thousand, said that their employer was under administrative management. Personnel receiving a salary will not be paid for December. No one will receive vacation pay, which they counted on the eve of Christmas and New Year. In Britain, TVR completed its path. In July 2004, Peter Willer, an eccentric millionaire, who was the lord of the company for almost a quarter of a century, sold TVR. The buyer was Nikolai Smolensky, born in Russia, but calling himself a citizen of Greece or Britain. Then he was 24 years old, but, "looked like a 15-year-old schoolboy." Smolensky proclaimed that TVR "represents all the best that is in British engineering and skill, and he really wants to see what she can do, having additional resources behind her."

A few weeks after buying a company to young Russians, TVR plant workers felt confident. “When he first appeared, it seemed that everything was very good,” recalls the working body workshop. “It seemed that he could become our Savior.” Smolensky emphasized that he was very interested in the company and, most importantly, is ready to invest in it. “When he appeared, he stated that he bought a company when there were two weeks left before its closure,” said the man who was dealing with the Russians. ” “He even talked about the introduction of a pension scheme, which we never had,” another employee said. In an attempt to improve the diet of Blackpool workers, Smolensky ordered to bring and place fruit boxes in the factory so that workers could treat themselves. "He is considered a fan of a healthy lifestyle," said one of the workers. Smolensky probably knew about the benefits of fruits and vegetables. But in his designer suits and elegant shoes, he was not like a person who was ready to stain his hands. When reports were published for 2004 - the year when Smolensky took control of his company, the picture was gloomy. Meanwhile, TVR herself tried to seem optimistic. "After the owner’s change in July 2004, the new shareholder made serious applications for the strengthening of the group’s position," the company said. But optimism could not hide the fact that in 2004 the company lost almost 11.7 million pounds (more than $ 20 million) with sales of only 17.2 million pounds, that is, losses were equivalent to a loss of 34 thousand pounds when selling a car worth 50 thousand pounds. Losses were partially explained by the write -off of 8 million pounds with the total cost of shares.

It is important, TVR said that Smolensky assured that "he would carry out further funding to support the future growth of the group."

To his honor, Smolensky ordered that the TVR deal with the problems of quality control that pursued its cars: he delayed the production of Sagaris worth 54 thousand pounds - the car can develop a speed of 60 miles per hour (about 90 km/h) in 3.7 seconds - to guarantee overcoming growth diseases. By the spring of 2006, production on TVR fell to less than 10 cars per week. The lack of engines and raw materials for the bodies also slowed down such production.

It is characteristic that Smolensky was seen less and less. Once every few weeks, he flew to the Blackpool airport on his plane, from where he was taken - of course, at TVR - to the factory. But such visits were less and less. In April, TVR announced that she would close her old factory in Blackpool. But this is not the end, cars will simply produce in another place, the company emphasized, vaguely promising to save the "British presence". The director of the sales department Jason Oksli went so far that he offered the absurd prospect of turning TVR into "New Aston Martin, selling thousands of cars a year."

Reductions were made on Easter. Then, in October, when production practically stopped, another 150 workers were reduced. Since then, about 100 people came to the plant daily. “We just sat, played cards and watched DVD,” said Dave Gillespi, a member of the trade union commission. “It was absurd.”

For several months, Smolensky appeared with plans for the transfer of production to another section in Blackpool. Then - to Italy. Then he retreated and said that TVR will continue to be produced in Britain. “But no one had illusions about how it would end,” Gillespi said.