CPP: the car company you'll be hearing more of

You will have heard of Spyker, the Dutch boutique car maker that surprised the industry just over a year ago by buying troubled Saab from General Motors. You may possibly have heard of Bowler, the specialist 4x4 company which turns Land Rovers into high performance off-roaders such as the Wildcat and Nemesis (pictured, above). But I doubt very much you’ve heard of CPP Global Holdings Ltd, the Coventry coachbuilding firm which now owns both the Spyker and Bowler brands. I chatted with Brendan O’Toole, managing director of CPP, at the recent Geneva Motor Show. We talked about the Spyker deal, which is great news for the skilled West Midlands workforce that had already been building the C8 Aileron for Spyker under contract before the sale went through. News of the Bowler deal wasn’t public knowledge at that point, but clearly negotiations were ongoing. O’Toole seems like a switched-on bloke who has got the interests of the British car industry at heart. He says CPP’s strategy is to grow as a collection of complementary specialist automotive businesses. He’s got Russian money behind him and there’s plenty of that around. So what brand is next to join CPP, I wonder?