A rather sad story for you this morning – not quite weep at your desk sad, but a little bit “oh, shame”. A key maker of London black cabs is looking a bit shaky. No profit in 2011, and it reckons it’s got another painful year ahead.
Taxi-maker Manganese Bronze sold 1,502 black cabs last year in this country, a fall of 9.1 per cent on its 2010 UK figure of 1,653.
And a little known fact for you all to spice up this story – black taxis are all the rage in Azerbaijan. So much so, in fact, that a delayed order for 1,000 black taxis from the Eurasian nation is one of the reason Manganese Bronze fell behind last year.
Of course, our rubbish economic situation is to blame too. But if London’s monetary strife is holding back the proliferation of our stylish noir vehicular icons, at least the rest of the world is holding up the black cab fort. Manganese Bronze sold 705 black taxis overseas in 2011 compared with 226 in 2010.
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