Honda

When Soichiro Honda was a young boy, he saw his first motor car. It leaked oil and he got down on his hands and knees to smell it. “It was like perfume” was how he described that moment. This passion for automotive engineering, that began with Mr Honda the man, continues to run through Honda the organisation. It’s not just about priding ourselves on being progressive, forward-thinking and innovative. It really is the only way we know.

It’s not just his passion for the automobile that is still prevalent. We’re also driven by the Honda Philosophy and our culture is very much ‘Equality for All’. Every single one of our Associates has exactly the same opportunity to progress, their name badge states only their first name, not a job title, with no executive parking or dining.  Why? At Honda we believe that better team relationships are fostered if you remove any status barriers.

Opening in 1985 and currently employing 3,000 Associates, our plant in Swindon is Honda of the UK Manufacturing Ltd. It’s here that we produce the Civic, CRV and Jazz models. Our total production capacity is 250,000 units every year.  It’s a well known fact that last year due to the global economic crisis, car production ceased for 4 months. It was the first time in our history that this had happened, but in true Honda Philosophy, we saw this change as a chance and we transformed and improved our working environment as well as undertook a range of projects in the community.

Since that time, just over a year ago, we have grown from strength to strength and are doing what we do best, building high quality cars for worldwide customer satisfaction.