Rover boss praised for saving jobs

John Towers is still working hard to turn around the business

By the BBC's Fran Barnes of R5 Live

When John Towers' mobile phone rang 12 months ago asking him if he'd like to return to the car company, Rover, by buying it for £10 he said a resounding yes.

"I suppose I needn't have done it but I couldn't not do it."

The concern I had was that it looked as though everybody thought it was all over, that there was a miracle cure and that we'd done it

John Towers
MG Rover

"After having become so involved from a personal and a business sense, there wasn't a way to turn back from it."

His decision made, John Towers was left with the task of turning round a multi million pound loss making Longbridge factory into profit.

English Patient

BMW had walked after failing to find a future for their "English Patient".

It left over 6 thousand workers with an uncertain future.

One of them was father of 4, Andrew Cartwright, a paint shop worker at Longbridge.

"It just hit me like a tonne of bricks, I thought, what am I going to do? I'm going to struggle to get a job now".

It had taken Andrew three years to get a job at Rover. In 1989 it was seen as one of the most secure jobs in Birmingham.

Eleven years on, with a wife and four children it would have been vital, but very difficult, to get a job elsewhere.

Saviour

If Rover had closed, the thousands of people who worked there and the tens of thousands who relied upon Rover for their living, would have stopped paying taxes and gone on benefits.

That, in itself, would have had a significant national impact.

One year on, the remaining workers at MG Rover now feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude to John Towers - their "saviour".

That, in itself, puts a different kind of pressure on the man in charge of turning the business around.

"The concern I had was that it looked as though everybody thought it was all over, that there was a miracle cure and that we'd done it," Mr Towers said.

"But my goodness that was only the beginning."

Last chance

John Towers' ruthless determination to make Rover succeed led to one thousand people losing their jobs.

The company has now started recruiting again and for the first time in recent years, it is taking on apprentices.

But despite exceeding last year's sales targets, the company's future is largely dependent on the commercial success of the new MG.

Something perhaps best summed up by Andrew Cartwright in the middle of his 10 hour shift in the paint shop.

"I think it probably is Rover's last chance but if somebody has asked me who I'd like to hold the ship and get it steady I would have said John Towers."

You can hear more on this story on the The 5 Live Report: Rover Return broadcast at 12 noon on Sunday 6 May on Radio 5 Live and repeated on Saturday 12 May at 20:35.