Westfield Signs Deal with DRB-HICOM

[Julian Turner - Westfield Sportscars Ltd]

Hot off the Press

Westfield is delighted to announce a new international partner DRB-HICOM, one of Malaysia's leading corporations.  Westfield and DRB-HICOM will work together on the design, development and distribution of Westfield and GTM cars in the Asia Pacific Region.

Please find below a link to the press release

http://www.westfield-sportscars.co.uk/westfield%20press%20release.pdf

This is fantastic news for the future both Westfield and GTM and i would like to thank everyone for their hard work - Westfield and GTM Owners, employees and the Drivers that took them round various UK tracks in a Westfield and GTM in the rain.

Julian

[stephenh]

That sounds like great news for Potenza/Westfield.

Just wonder were it leaves us, the existing Westfield "kitcar" owners and enthusiasts.

I seem to remember long ago that when Colin Chapman decided he wanted to move into the mainstream world of european sportscar manufacture and away from kitcars, one of the first things he did was to sell the design and marketing rights to his Lotus 7 to his principal retailing agent, a certain Caterham Cars.

I just hope we continue to have support, and that the cars as we know them contine to be sold.

[Mark Stanton]

Good News for WSC Ltd and maybe one day when worldwide network is fully operable would make a good company to take to stock market.

Lets not forget that WSC Ltd also had great success selling cars to Japanese market over 20 years ago        

[chris7273]

I just hope we continue to have support, and that the cars as we know them contine to be sold.

If only I could have support NOW....

I try to get a "factory built" attest and a technical spec sheets for my ZEI in order to make it eligible for a simplified registration in France (the ZEI version was in fact registered as a car and not as a kit) and I get no answer.

I don't worry for the Westfield support in the future since it won't be worse than now.

Julian, don't reply to me that I should take contact with the France importer, since he's only interested in selling new cars (Sport Turbo).

Cheers !

[Julian Turner - Westfield Sportscars Ltd]

As you may know the French registration process is very clear and registering used cars that are not compliant to European Level is near impossible.  This is why Westfield invested time and money gaining European Small Series Approval which makes the registration process a lot easier.

Westfield will help where we can and we have met the Drire face to face to go through some similiar issues and each one has been addressed by them individually.

Please can you contact Mark Walker who is already aware of your problem and will try and help.  He has already been in contact with Patrice regarding other customers who have sucessfully registered vehicles with Patrice's help - but we cannot guarantee the vehicle can be registered.

Mark: Mark@westfield-sportscars.co.uk

Julian

[lippydave]

I don't know about the implications of this, but certainly as press releases go that has to be one of scrappiest, scruffiest, most unprofessional pieces of media dissemination that it is possible to construct.

With the many and varied forms of media, software and publishing alternatives that are available in 2010, two scrappy, badly written, typed, and photocopied A4 sheets are hardly testament to a budding professional relationship are they?

If one of my kids had constructed that as a school assignment they'd be on gruel and water for a month....  

[stephenh]

I don't know about the implications of this, but certainly as press releases go that has to be one of scrappiest, scruffiest, most unprofessional pieces of media dissemination that it is possible to construct.

With the many and varied forms of media, software and publishing alternatives that are available in 2010, two scrappy, badly written, typed, and photocopied A4 sheets are hardly testament to a budding professional relationship are they?

If one of my kids had constructed that as a school assignment they'd be on gruel and water for a month....  

Thats a bit harsh, Dave. Problem with that sort of situation is you need to get something into the hands of the press quickly, otherwise the news leaks out in an uncontrolled way.

Conversely you cant risk preparing printed advices in advance in case they get into the wrong hands before the deal is done.

Seems to be a case of damned if you do and damned if you dont!

[lippydave]

I don't know about the implications of this, but certainly as press releases go that has to be one of scrappiest, scruffiest, most unprofessional pieces of media dissemination that it is possible to construct.

With the many and varied forms of media, software and publishing alternatives that are available in 2010, two scrappy, badly written, typed, and photocopied A4 sheets are hardly testament to a budding professional relationship are they?

If one of my kids had constructed that as a school assignment they'd be on gruel and water for a month....  

Thats a bit harsh, Dave. Problem with that sort of situation is you need to get something into the hands of the press quickly, otherwise the news leaks out in an uncontrolled way.

Conversely you cant risk preparing printed advices in advance in case they get into the wrong hands before the deal is done.

Seems to be a case of damned if you do and damned if you dont!

I dunno about harsh, well maybe the gruel for the kids, I'll concede that.  

However this is allegedly a collaboration with a multinational company and a statement contained within the release suggests that they would like to increase production 5 fold over the next few years.

How seriously would people take Ford if they issued a corporate statement of intent to propose a similar increase in production on two grubby bits of A4?

I would've thought a multinational could at least have announced something like this with a web presence and  a few graphics and pics' to pique public interest....

We are living in a worldwide media savvy global community in 2010 not 1950's Britain in Black and white with plummy voiced home counties radio announcers for fecks sake...

If you want to take on bigger competitors you need to think like a big player IMHO.

Harsh? I think not, but that's just my opinion....

[The Ninj]

Looks like a piece of raw information to me. The sort of info that news agencies get and then "tart" up into presentable stories to interpret however way they see fit. Which is the news that you read.

I Think this sort of information dessemination happens all the time and we're just seeing if first hand here. Which I kind of think is fine on a forum like this where The MD of the cars we all drive is happy to share this raw info with us before any large corp marketing dept gets hold of it.

I'm a CG artist and own a company that directs TV Ad so am pretty "media savvy" and I find what you call "grubby" actually quite refreshing!

We all watch the news and read pistonheads etc. All that stuff is fine and dandy, but dont think for a minute that all that nice slick shineyness is gospel. It's just re-iterating documents and memos etc and sticking some nice shiny photos on it to make it more presentable for the masses.

btw, if Westfield need any ads doing I'm your man

Sorry, couldn't resist!

[stephenh]

I agree with Ninj. It is the difference between a press release "in the raw" and a public anouncement or presentation. We were "privileged" to receive a copy of the initial press release which is normally issued to the press within an hour of the deal being signed.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

TBH, it looks like most PRESS Releases I've seen from big or small companies; the clue is in the name though, press release, i.e. intended for the press, just like Ninj says, ready for the individual media companies to tart up and fit to there own "house style". No doubt WF will eventually have a bells and whistles announcement in due time.

As Stephen says, quite nice to be included on the initial release.    

[windy]

Isn't HICOM a division of Proton that owns Lotus?

If so Westfield might be getting some "heritage status" after all  

[SteveD]

Isn't HICOM a division of Proton that owns Lotus?

If so Westfield might be getting some "heritage status" after all  

[tex]

you should see the ones we see on our intranet.. Nissan renault group dont put much into initial release but save the glossy stuff for tv press ads.. Why spend on staff and people already in the know?

[brindle]

Perhaps now he has finished this, he will have time to reply to my letter re Meningitus fundraising I sent 2 months ago.