MIRA Ltd was born out of one of the major conflicts of the 20th Century and now the company is moving with the times into the 21st century. Public Relations Manager Richard Adams explains more.
Written by Rebecca Waters and Produced by Rahim Ali
“The UK plc model was pretty much bust after the Second World War,” says Richard Adams. “We were trying to export cars overseas and many vehicles were failing in territory, so the UK government took it upon itself to create a development centre for all vehicle makers to use so that our products would stand up better overseas. As such, they converted what was RAF Lindley into a proving ground and that led to the formation of MIRA (which stood for the Motor Industry Research Association) just after the Second World War.”
Since then MIRA has now grown immeasurably into an international organisation, having designed and developed products for clients in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, South America and the USA.
Despite this, MIRA has, Adams continues, always been known for really being a car firm, although ‘maybe that isn’t a fair reflection on what we do.’ He describes MIRA as a company that ‘does things with wheels,’ rail, aerospace, military and automotive. “Basically anything with a wheel on it we’ll touch. The only transport sector we don’t focus on is marine.”
Transfer opportunity
As the British Car industry has either moved overseas or been taken over, MIRA has moved to support that change. “We have to move with the times, grow up” Adams explains. “There are many new opportunities in the emerging world, so it’s important for us partner these bull markets and offer technology transfer opportunities. At the end of the day, the Chinese are going to be putting one billion people in a car very soon.”
MIRA’s growth, particularly in the defence market, reflects where the group, strategically, is heading: “We’re changing the nature of the board to reflect the nature of the business now.” As part of this, the company has added Major-General Alan Sharman (Ret), former Director General of the Defence Manufacturers Association (DMA) to the MIRA family, as a non-executive director. Richard says, “He can give us a sort of strategic guidance that we need to secure a robust mix of work in the future.
“It’s a good time to be in the defence market; with wars going on there are obviously urgent operational requirements which we need to satisfy...finding quick solutions to problems.”
The ‘Grand Challenge’
This summer, MIRA will be one of the teams competing in the MOD Grand Challenge. The MIRA team, made up of BAE Systems ATC, ERA, Warwick University, GFS Projects Ltd and Guildford High School, is one of the six finalists to be chosen for the event. The event, to develop new technology to support troops, will be run at Copehill Down, an MOD FIBUA (fighting in built-up areas) military training complex…
April 14, 2008