Inside The Morgan Factory – Why Bespoke Manufacturing Is Thriving

Forbes

2 days ago

Morgan has stuck to its traditional styling and manufacturing methods
Morgan Motor Company has been a staple of British automotive manufacturing for 115 years. Always dedicated to small volume manufacturing, the brand has maintained its heritage and traditional craftsmanship methods throughout its more than a century long history. To find out more about this unique company, I visited Morgan's factory in Malvern to speak with Managing Director, Matt Hole.
After being appointed chief technical officer in 2021, Matt Hole became managing director last year
Trinity Francis: Tell us about how the company has evolved over the past five years?
Matt Hole: In 2019, the company exited family ownership and now we're independently owned by an investment group. That has enabled us to really start investing in products and product development. We're going through a cycle at the moment where we are trying to set Morgan up for the next 10, 15, 20 years and therefore the products needed some updating to be able to comply with future legislation.
Having invested heavily over the last few years in product development, now we're in a growth phase, building volume and accessing new markets. The US was a critical markets for us. We're really proud that last year we gained authorization to sell cars in the US. Almost overnight we had a couple hundred orders. When you think this year we will only sell 650 cars, it's a big proportion of our volume.
When you walk through the factory, you can see each owner's personality coming to life through their ... More car
Francis: How has the changing political landscape affected the business?
Hole: We've certainly had trials and tribulations over the past few months with the Trump tariffs but we're quite lucky with the team we have, they're creative and agile. As soon as the tariffs were announced, we sat down as a group and tried to understand how we could mitigate the costs and came up with a strategy that took some of the non-car costs out of the price.
Francis: Are there any plans to set up manufacturing elsewhere?
Hole: Malvern is the home of Morgan, we've been here for 116 years. What's really important is the ecosystem around Malvern and in the UK that allows us to utilize a very specialist supply chain. The type of cars we're building require special components and specialist skills, so we've built that ecosystem over the last 116 years.
To take that and put it somewhere else in the world would be a very tricky thing to do. Part of the DNA of the brand and the value proposition is that these cars are made in the UK. We're a very British company and our customers tell us that's something that they value. What we are looking to do next year is move the Morgan Experience around the world. We'll be increasing the experience offering we have in the US and also expanding it in the Middle East.
The Morgan Midsummer showcased traditional hand crafted skills with prominent wooden trim
Francis: What are Morgan's future plans when it comes to EVs?
Hole: We look at sustainability slightly differently from some other car manufacturers. One of the challenges I've set for the team is that Morgan should be synonymous with sustainability without having to deliver an EV. The reason I say that is because the way we build our cars is inherently sustainable. The materials we're using are of a very high recyclability content. We don't have heavy machinery to make the cars, so what we put into the cars has a low environmental impact.
The real story of Morgan's sustainability is that over 90% of all Morgans are still on the road and we cater to these vehicles to keep them on the road. If you want to buy a body panel for a 1950s Morgan, you can call our parts department and somebody will make one and send it to you. We believe we are one of the most sustainable car manufacturers in the world.
Underneath every Morgan is a handmade wooden frame
Francis: Are we likely to see an all-electric Morgan anytime soon?
Hole: At the moment, we can't build a lightweight dynamic Morgan with the technology that's on the market at a price that we could sell the car for, it's not commercially viable. But, we believe we've got a good roadmap that will get us there at the right time. I think people would be surprised by the R&D that's going on in the background which is very much focused on electrification. We don't have any plans for a plug-in hybrid because the complexity and cost don't match our product. In future, we might adopt some mild hybridization which will be forced on us by our technology partners.
Francis: Traditionally, Morgan has been associated with an older demographic, how has that changed with the launch of the Morgan Supersport?
Hole: At the moment we're looking toward a slightly younger demographic, the reason being, time moves on and people get older. If we keep on targeting the same group, as they get older, eventually they'll stop driving and stop buying cars. It's important for us to keep fresh and make sure we keep on building a customer base going forward.
From the Plus Six to Supersport, the demographic has shifted by almost 10 years. The average age of a Plus Six owner was around 65, it's now around 55 for a Supersport owner. Super 3 is even younger than that by another 10 years, so I feel like we've got a broad spectrum of products that appeal to a wide variety of people.
Supersport models have started making their way through the factory alongside Plus Four, Super 3 and ... More Midsummer models
Francis: How do you strike the right balance between keeping Morgan's heritage but also moving the brand forward?
Hole: It's about putting technology in the background to do its job and help the owner but not get in the way of driving. The way we homologate our cars means we don't need a lot of the additional systems that interact with you when you're driving which I think means that the type of motoring you get with a Morgan will always be more analog than a mass produced car.
As you've seen with the Supersport, we're updating and evolving the design language and styling of the cars so they're always recognizable as a Morgan but they appeal to a wider demographic with a more modern aesthetic. We will continue to evolve that over the next few years and you will see new products coming out in future that take that further.
Completed Morgans wait in the factory ready for collection or shipment to other countries
Francis: What sets Morgan apart from other manufacturers?
Hole: For a lot of owners, there's a deep personal connection with the car. A couple of months ago, when we launched Supersport, I had a chance to sit with Richard Hammond's mom. She was telling me about the love that her husband had for his Morgan and why she wanted to come to the launch because she wanted to come back to Morgan and remember the time that she had with her husband here when they bought the car.
This community exists and out of the blue, without any product placement, we found out the NASCAR champion Joey Logano drives a Morgan Super 3. In the opening scene for this season of NASCAR: Full Speed, Logano is doing donuts in the Super 3.
People love Morgans, they want to own them and people cherish them. It's just so nice hearing about the stories and attachment people have with their cars. We joke that Patek Philippe has this thing about handing their watches down from generation to generation but that's what it's like with Morgans. Richard Hammond's dad's car is now his car and people hand their Morgans down which is why we keep cars from the 1950s going because they're important to people.
The interiors workshop is responsible for trimming each vehicle with the customer's preferred color ... More scheme
Francis: What are you most excited about looking to the future of Morgan?
Hole: Since I've been at Morgan, I've realized that the company has such a huge amount of potential. If you look at the cars we design, they're original and we have the flexibility to design cars in a way that nobody else has the freedom to. I feel Morgan has an opportunity in the next five years to really live up to its potential and I think it's a bit of an underdog in the car world. Morgan is a very unique company, there's nobody in the world that builds cars like we do. I think we're blessed with a really talented team and the company will go on from strength to strength.
The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.