Photo: BMW
It was back in 1973 when BMW opened its first plant outside of Germany and since then, Plant Rosslyn worked day and night to put together an important chunk of the company’s total sales. Yesterday, it celebrated its 1 millionth car manufactured in its 42 years of activity.
The anniversary car rolled off the assembly line in Rosslyn, Pretoria in the presence of Harald Kruger, Management Board member of BMW AG responsible for production. Of course, it was the best selling model in BMW’s range today, the 3 Series sedan.
“Globalization has been an inherent part of our corporate strategy for more than four decades. Established in 1973, plant Rosslyn was BMW Group’s first foreign plant and represents a cornerstone of our global production network with presently 30 sites in 14 countries. To this day, the South African production site remains a vivid example of a successful market entry through local production,” said Krüger on the occasion of the anniversary.
The milestone reached today is further proof that the importance of overseas production is getting bigger and bigger. For example, last year, BMW 3 Series Sedan exports from South Africa grew by 17 percent, putting the German brand atop an ad-hoc ranking of manufacturers by export numbers.
At the moment, there are 43,000 people working directly or indirectly related to the BMW plant in the African country. 3,700 of them are working directly at the plant and in the national sales organizations while 36,000 are involved in first-tier supplier ties. Another 3,700 are dealership staff.
Last year alone, the Rosslyn plant put together 68,771 3 Series for both local and export markets. Here’s to even bigger numbers in the future!
“Globalization has been an inherent part of our corporate strategy for more than four decades. Established in 1973, plant Rosslyn was BMW Group’s first foreign plant and represents a cornerstone of our global production network with presently 30 sites in 14 countries. To this day, the South African production site remains a vivid example of a successful market entry through local production,” said Krüger on the occasion of the anniversary.
The milestone reached today is further proof that the importance of overseas production is getting bigger and bigger. For example, last year, BMW 3 Series Sedan exports from South Africa grew by 17 percent, putting the German brand atop an ad-hoc ranking of manufacturers by export numbers.
At the moment, there are 43,000 people working directly or indirectly related to the BMW plant in the African country. 3,700 of them are working directly at the plant and in the national sales organizations while 36,000 are involved in first-tier supplier ties. Another 3,700 are dealership staff.
Last year alone, the Rosslyn plant put together 68,771 3 Series for both local and export markets. Here’s to even bigger numbers in the future!
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