TVR embarks on marketing review
TVR, the Lancashire-based sports car manufacturer, is considering recruiting its first full-time marketer and appointing an advertising agency following its purchase the 24-year-old Russian millionaire Nikolai Smolenski last week.
TVR spokesman Ben Samuelson says: “When it comes to marketing, the biggest change is that we will be doing some. Everything is being reviewed.”
The company says it plans to increase production and widen the availability of the brand but says it is too early to add specific details, other than saying that a strategic review is under way.
The company, which employs 400 people, has operated without full-time marketing staff and has not historically engaged in advertising or direct marketing. Marketing activity has instead been limited to attendance at the British Motor Show and involvement in motorsport.
Its cars are sold in the UK, some western European countries, Japan, Russia and South Africa but the majority of its 1,000 annual sales are in the UK. Its high-powered sports cars cost between £35,000 and £75,000.
The company is rumoured to have cost the 24-year-old Russian £15m. TVR takes its name from the abbreviated first name of its founder Trevor Wilkinson, who set up the company in 1948.
The sale of TVR is the latest in a series which has seen iconic British marques such as Aston Martin, Bentley, Lotus and Rolls-Royce acquired by buyers overseas.
