Efforts to persuade the proprietors of the British sports car marque TVR to establish a new production plant in Wales might have squandered millions of pounds.
During 2021, the Welsh Government spent £4.75 million acquiring a previously developed site, which was the former location of an abandoned Techboard factory, along with an additional £7.6 million on its restoration in preparation for the prospective establishment of TVR Automotive’s automobile manufacturing facility. Additionally, they granted TVR a £2 million loan and injected £500,000 into a share of the company.
The objective was to establish a car plant that would generate 150 job opportunities locally and manufacture approximately 2,000 sports cars. Nevertheless, TVR Automotive has recently opted against setting up their operations in Wales and is reputedly finalizing arrangements for a different site in Hampshire.
Adrian Crompton, the auditor general for Wales, communicated to the Welsh Parliament that if the 180,000-square-foot property were to be sold at its market worth of around £7.5 million, it would result in a deficit of £4.85 million for taxpayers.
Since November, the officials have been striving to secure an alternative lessee. The administration expressed, “This presents an exceptional chance for any enterprise looking to acquire a contemporary manufacturing facility within the region.”
Despite recommendations from officials to postpone the renovation until a lease agreement was finalized with TVR, the Welsh Government notified TVR in August 2020 that the renovation would proceed “with or without them,” as disclosed by Crompton.
Crompton highlighted that in September 2016, TVR violated the terms of the loan by failing to secure the promised £5.5 million investment from the private sector to commence production.
He further mentioned that TVR bargained for extensions to the Welsh Government’s conditions for defaulting on the loan, or else it would have necessitated an early repayment in full.
By April 2022, TVR had remunerated £4.3 million to the Welsh Government, covering the £2 million loan and accumulated interest, thereby absolving the company from the commitment to establish its operations in Wales.
In 2006, the then-owner of TVR, a Russian individual named Nikolay Smolensky, shuttered the TVR headquarters in Blackpool, just three years prior to the demise of Trevor Wilkinson, the founder of TVR.
Smolensky contemplated relocating the production to Italy. Subsequently, in 2013, Smolensky sold off the TVR brand, intellectual property, and remaining assets to a group led by Les Edgar, who is now striving to revive the automotive manufacturer under the name TVR Automotive Ltd.
