Prodrive Ltd
Prodrive is one of the world’s largest motorsport and vehicle technology businesses with annual revenues exceeding £100m.
While its roots are in motorsport, the company has evolved since its creation in 1984 into a business that has differentiated its offering through developing a specialisation in the development of advanced technology for road vehicles. Its business model is based upon partnering with customers thereby creating strong linkages between the respective value chains.
Today Prodrive has broadened its areas of business still further, transferring its skills into sectors including aerospace, marine and defence. These include the development of new technologies for the reduction of carbon emissions in everything from cars to domestic heating systems. Prodrive also has its own manufacturing facilities and supplies components for everything from Formula One cars to space satellites and high performance winches for racing yachts.
Despite this diversification into new markets, Prodrive has continued to focus on its core competencies and has essentially broadened its offering to exploit global opportunities through linkages to its customers' value chains. Prodrive will often embed its own value chain in their customer’s value system by offering a turnkey solution that can include intangible activities such as design, all the way through to prototype builds and testing. One of the best examples of this is the relationship with Subaru. For nearly 19 years, Prodrive has worked closely with the Japanese car manufacturer to develop and run the Subaru World Rally Team. Over the years, this partnership has grown to include road car projects where Prodrive has worked with Subaru to develop a number of limited edition performance cars to enhance the brand.
Prodrive operates on a global scale and offers mainstream automotive manufacturers an opportunity to differentiate their own products through limited editions that employ Prodrive technology. A recent example of this is the Alfa Romeo Brera S launched in May 2008. Tony Butcher, managing director of Prodrive’s automotive technology business, said: “We were able to bring our skills in chassis, engine and suspension development to bear on this classic Italian sports car. Alfa saw so much value in the work we were carrying out for them that the marketing of the car was based around our involvement, with the product’s proposition ‘Best of Italy, Best of Britain’ emphasising the international cooperative nature of the project.”
Today Prodrive has broadened its areas of business still further, transferring its skills into sectors including aerospace, marine and defence. These include the development of new technologies for the reduction of carbon emissions in everything from cars to domestic heating systems. Prodrive also has its own manufacturing facilities and supplies components for everything from Formula One cars to space satellites and high performance winches for racing yachts.
Despite this diversification into new markets, Prodrive has continued to focus on its core competencies and has essentially broadened its offering to exploit global opportunities through linkages to its customers' value chains. Prodrive will often embed its own value chain in their customer’s value system by offering a turnkey solution that can include intangible activities such as design, all the way through to prototype builds and testing. One of the best examples of this is the relationship with Subaru. For nearly 19 years, Prodrive has worked closely with the Japanese car manufacturer to develop and run the Subaru World Rally Team. Over the years, this partnership has grown to include road car projects where Prodrive has worked with Subaru to develop a number of limited edition performance cars to enhance the brand.
Prodrive operates on a global scale and offers mainstream automotive manufacturers an opportunity to differentiate their own products through limited editions that employ Prodrive technology. A recent example of this is the Alfa Romeo Brera S launched in May 2008. Tony Butcher, managing director of Prodrive’s automotive technology business, said: “We were able to bring our skills in chassis, engine and suspension development to bear on this classic Italian sports car. Alfa saw so much value in the work we were carrying out for them that the marketing of the car was based around our involvement, with the product’s proposition ‘Best of Italy, Best of Britain’ emphasising the international cooperative nature of the project.”
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