MINI Plant Oxford is celebrating 20 years of producing the 'new Mini'.

The first new model rolled off the line in April 2001. Since then Mini has built over five million cars in the UK. 

The Oxford plant now builds the 3-door hatch, 5-door hatch, Clubman and Mini Electric on the same production line.

Tom Festa, future models integration engineer, works for BMW Group on the design of new vehicles. 

He recalled: “In those early days when the car was still being developed I remember the target body stiffness we were aiming for - we knew then our new Mini was going to be fun to drive even before we put an engine in it.

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“When we started to drive those early production cars on the road the public reaction was amazing. People young and old were openly pointing and smiling.”

Mini plants Oxford and Swindon employ more than 4,500 workers, including 130 apprentices. They build more than 1,000 Minis a day - one every 67 seconds. 

IT engineer Jason Field has an excellent knowledge of the history of the plant. 

He met his wife Tanya on his apprenticeship with Rover and Tanya’s great-grandfather lent William Morris the money he needed to start the factory. 

Together they run multiple Mini owners’ clubs.

He said: “Working in IT, we had just completed a busy year for the ‘Millennium Bug’ and was hoping for a quieter year.

From June 2000 to start of production in April 2001, we ended up replacing the entire network infrastructure, telephony system and installed thousands of cables in the refurbished production halls.”

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Mini Plant Oxford has been at the heart of the community for 108 years. Recently it has become a tourist destination with 26,000 Mini fans enjoying the award-winning plant tours. 

With the Mini Electric going into production last year, the plant is already electrified and in the early 2030s, Mini will be the first BMW brand to go fully electric.

Mick Fisher is the longest-standing employee and helped set up when BMW purchased the brand.

He said: “One of my lasting memories from the early days is the amount of support and lasting friendships I received from what was (then) our sister plant in Regensburg.

"It helped us to build a new maintenance team in mini assembly which continues to this day.”