“MINI production triangle” pin

Another collectible – this one from eBay after a few failed bids; apparently this pin is quite rare! It recognizes the “MINI production triangle” where three manufacturing plants in southern England (Hams Hall, Oxford and Swindon) are involved in the production of MINIs …

From the September 2006 press release:

OXFORD
MINI production at the Oxford plant has developed into a success story
in the automotive industry since the start of production in April 2001 owing to
high global demand. Initial production forecasts of just 100,000 units per annum doubled to more than 200,000 units produced in 2005 within just four years of launch.

[HISTORY] In 1913, the first car was built in Oxford when William Morris, a keen racing cyclist, turned his attentions from repairing bicycles to assembling motorcars. The history of his car company began with production of the Bullnose Morris, so called because of the shape of its radiator.
The Oxford plant was built in its present form when Morris expanded in the 1930s. The production centre was built for the mass production of steel bodies, which had predominantly been built in batch production until then. After Rover Group was purchased in 1994 the plant came under the ownership of BMW Group. In 2001, it was completely modernised for the production start-up of MINI. BMW Group invested a total of approximately £280 million in MINI production at Oxford between 2000 and 2004.

SWINDON
As the new main supplier of MINI pressings and sub-assemblies, a new chapter has begun for the Swindon plant in its fifty-year history. It has now become the main supplier for the new MINI, meaning that about 90 percent of the pressings and almost 80 percent of the sub-assemblies for the car are produced in Swindon.

[HISTORY] The Swindon plant was established in 1954 when the Pressed Steel Company needed extra capacity beyond its Oxford facility and bought land in Stratton St Margaret, on the outskirts of Swindon, to create a further car panel production facility. It produced its first panel the following year, in 1955. From then onwards the facility became a major supplier of body panels to a number of car manufacturers and ultimately passed into the control of Rover Group and was acquired by BMW Group in 1994.

HAMS HALL
Since opening in 2001, the Hams Hall plant near Birmingham has developed into the competence centre for the production of four-cylinder petrol engines within the worldwide BMW Group Production Network. The plant, which already produces all four-cylinder petrol engines for BMW brands, now takes over the assembly process of MINI engines … Four days before the assembly of a customer’s order at the Oxford plant, Hams Hall is informed which engine variants are required … updated daily in order to guarantee that the engines arrive in the right order and at the right time.

[HISTORY] The Hams Hall plant was built in 2001 by the BMW Group on a brownfield site near Birmingham with investment of £400 million. At this state-of-the-art facility, BMW four-cylinder petrol engines have been supplied to an increasing number of vehicle plants in the worldwide BMW Group Production Network.
In May 2006, the 750,000th engine built since the launch of the plant came off the assembly line. With the additional production of the new generation of petrol engines for the new MINI the total production volume is set to increase still further