CM invited British Leyland to comment. We have received this letter from LordStokes. -
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Our plans to introduce a new or modified car every six months are confined to the AustinMorris and Specialist Car Divisions of British Leyland and will have no repercussions at all on the operations of our Truck and Bus Division. These models are essential if we are to maintain our current rate of progress in international car markets.
Your reader should not infer from this that we are not taking action in other fields. I am as concerned as he is at the inability of some of our major component manufacturers to supply us with sufficient stocks to ensure an efficient service to our customers. Since the formation of British Leyland we have devoted a vast amount of time and money to this problem and the situation is improving rapidly. A further indication of our policy in this direction is the allocation of £2.25 million to expand productive capacity of components at Albion. We have also reinforced our parts progress teams and introduced improved scheduling techniques which have now brought our spares availability (both bought-out and of our own manufacture) up to well over 90 per cent.
This is not good enough for us and during the next few months we hope to reach a situation where we will be able to cope with even the greatest emergency.
STOKES, Chairman and Managing Director, British Leyland Motor Corporation,