It's not us!

9/14/2009

Dorchester is about to become one of the car-making capitals of the world – if rumours sweeping the town are to be believed.

Magna Housing Group has received calls asking if they are taking over motoring giants, Opel and Vauxhall.

A check by staff quickly revealed the source of the enquires - General Motors (GM) had chosen Magna to buy Opel and sister firm Vauxhall.

One caller wanted to know if Vauxhall’s 5,500 UK-based employees would be moving to Dorset while another asked if tenants would be getting discount on new cars.

But the Magna GM were referring to wasn’t the county town-based social housing landlord. Instead, Canadian car parts company, Magna, has bought the European operations of GM.

"We were half expecting this", said Magna Housing Group chief executive, Graham Colls, "because we’d been aware of some confusion when the story first broke about GM selling Vauxhall and Opel a few months ago.

"Trouble was, some of the radio stations who have been running the story over the past few days have just been saying Magna without explaining who they are.

"I guess if you had just half caught the story you might have thought it was us. When you say Magna in this part of the world, people obviously think of the Magna Housing Group.

"Being a long established organisation, our name is known to most people and so it’s understandable."

He added: "But I can assure our tenants we’re not about to go into car making. It would obviously be tremendous for Dorchester’s economy but I’m afraid it’s not about to happen."