Bentley was founded in 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley, or W.O. as he was known
W.O. Bentley’s mission statement is as true today as it was then “To build a good car, a fast car, the best in its class”
The first Bentley car, EXP 1, was completed in London in 1919
Cricklewood was the first home of Bentley, producing cars until 1931
Rolls-Royce bought the company for £125,275 in 1931. From then on production moved to Derby until 1940, where the famous Derby Bentleys were made
The Pyms lane factory was built in1938, originally to manufacture the Merlin aero engine – 26,065 engines were built between 1938 and 1946
Car production commenced at Crewe in 1946, the first Bentley to roll off the production line was the Mark V1
In 1998 Bentley was acquired by the Volkswagen Group, immediately investing over £1billion to upgrade the factory
THE COMPANY
Bentley employs over 4000 people at its Pyms Lane headquarters in Crewe, Cheshire
Bentley has been named as one of Britain’s Top Employers for five years running
As of the end of 2015, Bentley is operating in 58 different markets, with 203 retail partners
10,100 cars were delivered to customers in 2015, the third consecutive year we have achieved more than 10,000 cars delivered.
Beyond Cars, Bentley is also very much involved with projects in the local community, with ‘Cheshire Community Foundation’ being our Charitable Partner.
Bentley is driven to engage with schools from the local community, offering 150 work experience positions to pupils from the Crewe area.
The company’s school liaison programme also works to raise interest in STEM subjects at schools, and offers foreign language sessions and careers advice.
The company also contributes to causes through the Bentley Charitable Appeals Committee and the UK automotive charity BEN
Bentley continues its future talent focus taking on a further 36 apprentices, 40 undergraduates and 24 graduates in areas such as manufacturing, engineering and aftersales, among others.
THE HOME OF BENTLEY
The Pyms Lane factory in Crewe has been the Home of Bentley since 1946
The Bentley Motors factory is a fully integrated site – all aspects of car production from Design, Engineering, Manufacture, Quality, and Sales & Marketing take place in Crewe
The site covers an area of 521,111m2 , with 166,930m2 indoors
Pyms Lane is also home to CW1 House, Bentley’s flagship showroom concept, and named after Bentley’s postal code
The world’s largest Bentley Boutique is situated in Bentley reception, and sells over 130 items from the Bentley Collection range. Popular items include a black and red leather weekender bag, a Bentley Wings pen and USB in the shape of Bentley key fob
20,815 solar panels on Bentley’s factory roof can supply up to 40% of the site’s electrical requirements and save an estimated 2,150 tons of CO2 emissions a year. Situated over 3.45 hectares of roof space, they generate enough energy to power 1,200 houses for a year
Bentley is the first UK Automotive plant to achieve both the ISO 14001 environmental standard and ISO 50001 energy management standard. While the company has increased production volumes tenfold over the last decade, the amount of energy used per car has fallen by over 60%.
Bentley has become the first UK automotive manufacturer to be awarded the triple Carbon Trust Standard for carbon, water and waste reduction
With recycling facilities available across the factory Recycling went up from 85% in 2013 to 96.5% during 2015
The average length of service at Bentley is 12 years
There are currently 444 Bentley colleagues who cycle to work. This is supported by the Bentley cycle to work scheme
More than 700 businesses supply 18,000 parts from 31 countries and five continents to Crewe - 82 suppliers are located within a 50 mile radius of the factory
Bentley’s ‘Crewe Genuine Parts’ facility at Orion Park in Crewe holds over 60,000 parts, providing support for all cars built from1955 to present day
Orion Park has facilities to cut a key without an original to copy, for Bentleys dating to the early 1960s
CRAFTSMANSHIP
On average, 26 Continentals and Flying Spurs, 5 Mulsannes and 31 Bentaygas are built a day.
It takes around 110 hours to build a Continental GT, around 130 to build a Flying Spur, 130 to build a Bentayga, and around 400 to build a Mulsanne from start to finish
537 employees work on the Continental and Flying Spur production line
83 employees work on the Mulsanne production line
Bentley is recognised as the centre of excellence for Wood, Leather, and W12 Engine manufacture within the Volkswagen Group
It takes 30 people 13 and a half hours to build one W12 engine
It takes 136 hours to complete the interior trim on a Mulsanne
To contrast stitch the entire cabin takes between 25-40 additional hours, dependent on customer choice
Around 15 bull hides go into every Mulsanne, around 14 in a Bentayga, 13 in a Flying Spur, 11 in a Continental, or 10 for the Convertible version
Every Mulsanne steering wheel takes one person 10 metres of thread, 5 hours and 620 stitches to complete
Every sheet of wood within a complete car comes from the exact same tree. This is to ensure the pattern and colour is the same throughout the car and remains consistent as it ages
Each bundle of veneer consists of 24 leaves
A Bentley wood specialist views around 25,000 square metres of veneer in its raw form during selection, checking every inch, to ensure it is of the finest quality, a process that takes two days
It takes a human touch to achieve the Mulsanne’s best in industry paint finish. The process takes a team of people 12 hours to sand and polish every single car
300 Bentley employees are involved in the manufacture of the Mulsanne, while 1055 are involved in the manufacture of the Continental and Flying Spur ranges
QUALITY
Once a week an engine undergoes a full audit test – running the engine at speeds up to 6,000 revolutions per minute
Every car undergoes a 500-650 point checklist before final sign off, dependent on options
20 cars per week undergo a full audit, which includes full function, road test (around 40 miles per test), and a full interior and exterior check
Every car is tested on a rolling road, which is equivalent to four miles
In 2014 Bentley test drivers racked up 75,390 miles driving cars before handing over to the customer (not including audit miles and Quality Assurance Centre miles)
MULLINER
The Mulliner Tourbillon for Breitling for Bentayga beats 28800 times per hour ensuring precise time keeping
The stone used by Mulliner for its stone veneers began to form over 200 million years ago
Traditional marquetry can incorporate almost any image or design idea from an image of a 1930’s Bentley Speed Six that was incorporated onto the fascia panel of a 2015 Limited Edition or the landscape of the mountain range that inspired the name for world’s first luxury SUV created for the 2016 Beijing Motorshow.
It takes 37 hours to cross stitch the standard areas of a Mulsanne. With Mulliner even more areas can be personalised with this luxurious stich pattern.
Bespoke stowage solutions can be created to store anything you desire, we recently redesigned the front armrest of a Continental to store and charge a pair of wireless headphones.
We match Bentley child seats to the same interior specification of any vehicle, using the same leather, stitching, quilting or piping – all as standard. But, they can be completely bespoke, a gentleman recently matched a child seat to the colour of his daughter’s doll’s dress
To translate a picture such as a family crest into an embroidery design using CAD technology takes a designer 8-10 hours, the end result could contain 20,000 stitches
