German workers fly in to build Minis

In a reversal of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, the 1980s television series featuring British builders working in Germany, BMW is jetting in 100 workers every week from Munich to cope with a shortage of qualified engineers at the car company's Oxford plant.

BMW's difficulty in finding enough skilled local workers for its new £300m Mini factory will be an embarrassment to Tony Blair, who is due to open it officially next month. Its recruitment problems are shared by Honda and Nissan, which have also warned that a shortage of production engineers is affecting their British output.

A plane carrying about 100 German workers leaves Munich every Monday morning and returns on Friday evening. The engineers are from Oxford's sister plant at Regensburg in Bavaria, where the BMW 3 series is made.

Gareth Evans, human resources manager for the Oxford plant, said the skills shortage was not yet hampering BMW's ability to produce the Mini in the planned numbers, but that the problem was acute.

BMW plans to make 30,000 of the new Mini this year, building to full production of 100,000 next year. An additional 1,800 temporary staff are being hired on contract. The number to be given permanent jobs will depend on demand for the car.