Rolls-Royce car firm aims to end confusion with aero-engine maker

Prestige car manufacturer Rolls-Royce has issued a statement reiterating that it is a completely different company to its aircraft engine namesake, Rolls-Royce Plc.

This follows recent revelations about corruption at the listed business.

Widespread confusion persists over the relationship between the two firms, which separated into two totally separate organisations nearly 40 years ago.

Rolls-Royce Plc has been forced to pay a £671m settlement after years of bribery and corruption but stories in the media have been used with images of Rolls-Royce cars.

The Sussex-based luxury car brand – famously founded when Charles Stewart Rolls and Sir Frederick Henry Royce first met at the Midland Hotel in Manchester on May 4, 1904 – is concerned the errors are damaging its world-famous brand and is trying to highlight the separation between the two.

The situation has been complicated by Rolls-Royce Plc staff having purchased a Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit to gift as part of a series of bribes to win a contract to supply Indonesian airline Garuda with jet engines.

The statement spells out that the car maker is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Germany’s BMW and “has no involvement whatsoever in issues relating to alleged bribery and corruption and subsequent legal settlements reached by Rolls-Royce Plc”.

Both businesses regularly receive calls intended for the other, highlighting the confusion, with international media especially prone to making the mistake.
It is not the first time the car maker has been worried about its namesake damaging its image.

In late 2015, with Rolls-Royce Plc in crisis after issuing a series of profit warnings that caused its shares to plunge more than 60% and wiped £10bn off the company’s value, car business boss Törsten Müller-Ötvös spoke out about the “contagion” this was causing to his operation.

He said Rolls-Royce car owners, seeking to signal their success, might balk at the brand being mistakenly associated with financial problems at Britain’s most famous engineering company.

“We know how famous the brand is, and as much as we have done to make clear that they are separate, for many people it is hard to see the difference,” he said.

“When people read about the turmoil at Rolls-Royce it causes concern.”