WORCS IN PROGRESS

New Morgan boss Massimo Fumarola tells Steve Cropley how he will enhance and expand the eccentric Malvern-based sports car maker

- Steve Cropley

If Massimo Fumarola's parents had had a different next-door neighbour in Milan four decades ago, he probably would never have moved to Worcestershire in 2022 to become the fourth-ever CEO of the Morgan Motor Company. That neighbour was none other than the chairman of Italy's Morgan Motor Club, who Fumarola recalls as "a typical Morgan fan, always talking about how much he loved his cars".

When Fumarola left home, it was to train as an engineer and then join various large automotive companies. He took jobs at Ferrari, Lamborghini and the Volkswagen Group, among others, in an eventful early career that centred in recent years on international marketing.

When Morgan's new owner, the Italian venture capital company Investindustrial, offered Fumarola the chance to run one of the world's oldest (albeit smallest) car makers, he grabbed it with both hands.

"It was a dream," he says when we meet and talk at Morgan's London dealership. "How many chances do you get to work in the motor industry for 30 years and then to go back to what you enjoyed as a boy?"

From the start, he discovered there was much to do at Malvern. It was clear from indifferent earnings (a pre-tax profit of just £3 million in pre-Covid 2019 and a £700,000 loss in 2020) that the new investors would seek better returns.

Within a week of his arrival, Morgan was forced to announce a recall of three years of production for suspected brake problems. "Nothing bad happened," says Fumarola, "but a component supplier let us down. It was the safest thing to do."