Bentley Motors has been rewarded for its excellence in manufacturing after receiving a UK Industrial Excellence Award from a panel of Europe’s leading academic institutions.
Judges visited Bentley’s headquarters in Crewe for an assessment and highlighted the ability of Bentley to combine the traditional, labour intensive craftsmanship with efficiencies in production. Also praised was the success of the organisation in creating a customer focus and a continuous improvement culture and the resulting improvements in revenue growth, profit and productivity.
Commenting on the recognition, Michael Straughan, Bentley’s Member of the Board for Manufacturing, said: “This is an award for our workforce, who have all worked so hard over recent years to ensure Bentley remains at the forefront of UK manufacturing.
“It comes at a key time for us, as we expand our model line-up with the introduction of the Bentley Bentayga. This is a new challenge for us but one we will deliver with the same level of commitment, passion and engineering and manufacturing expertise that goes into every Bentley.”
The Industrial Excellence Award competition benchmarks European competitiveness in the industrial and service sector. It focuses on strategy development, management quality, strategy formulation, supply chain management, service management, new products and services and process technology development.
Winning the UK award means Bentley will compete with other European nations for the crown of European Industrial Excellence Award Champion, which will be announced in September.
Bentley is in a sustained period of growth, following the company’s record year in 2014, with more cars delivered than ever before. An investment programme reaching £840 million over three years to 2016 will see the company’s headquarter footprint expanded and investment in new models. Bentley has also created over 1,000 jobs in the past two years, including its highest apprentice intake in 25 years.
