Here's an article from GB about the sale of the HEALEY marque name to HFI.
Vrooom vrooom,
John
Industry: Healey brand name sold
27 Jan 06 17:18
The GB Sports Car Co, production partner of MG Rover's new owners
Nanjing Automotive, has recently announced that it is to make a new sports car
under the Austin-Healey brand - but this seems to have been somewhat
premature. It has transpired that the company did not have the rights to use
the Healey brand-name, which remained with the family of the late Donald
Healey, and that the nameplate has now been sold to a different, independent
firm.
An Anglo-American company called HFI Automotive has paid an estimated
$2million for the Healey name and the Healey Automobile Consultants (HAC)
firm, which it has purchased from Donald Healey's daughter-in-law Margot and
her daughters Cecilia and Kate, who will have a "significant" stake in the
firm, according to the Financial Times. HFI's managing director, Tim Fenna,
said that a prototype called Healey 3000 has already been tested, and that it
will be revealed later this year. It will be built in the UK, probably in
Warwickshire where the firm will employ 400 people, though most of its sales
will be in the US.
Fenna, who also owns a specialist parts-supply and modifications firm
for original Austin-Healeys, Frontline Spridget, told The Telegraph: "I'm
pretty excited about it all. We've been working on this for two years, talking
to the Healey family, and getting the funds and the team together. It was
important to involve the Healey family because they own the Healey name and it
would have been foolish to do something without their involvement."
Margot Healey said: "We have been committed to developing and protecting
the brand and we are very pleased to have reached an agreement which will
result in the manufacture of a new Healey in the UK. We look forward to seeing
the great British sports car back on our roads soon". Kate Healey added: "I'm
very pleased. We've been working for 10 years for this to happen and it's been
an emotional roller coaster. This is not just any name, it's my name with the
past of my sister, my grandfather and my mother and father in it, too. Tim
(Fenna) is a decent, honest and innovative engineer and a worthy custodian of
that name".
The HFI deal is specifically for the Healey brand name, but under the
original terms of Rover's ownership, the Healey name cannot legally be used
without the consent of the Healey family - which could put paid to the GB
Sports Car Co's plans to call its car an Austin-Healey. Fenna said: "I don't
want to comment about GB Sports Car, because we are not getting into a fight
or a slanging match. Our focus is on this new company. We've got a prototype
car running now and there's also a prototype platform for a second car."
(FT/Telegraph).
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