7:13 am, April 10, 2023
A used car Mini specialist dealership has taken a creative approach to its new signage after BMW said it couldn’t use the word ‘MINI’.
Previously called Mini World, the dealership has rebranded as ‘iNi World’ and amended its signage after BMW claimed it had breached its copyright.
The dealership, located on Ayr Road in Kilmarnock, is owned by independent family dealer Bridgend Motor Group.
It had opened in December 2022 but pictures of their signage had been sent to BMW in Munich by a ‘local informer’.
On social media, the used car dealer wrote on March 23 about its first rebrand: ‘We launched Bridgend Mini World back in December. A new site exclusively stocking 70 used Minis.
‘Our launch was so good the news made it all the way over to Munich in Germany (the headquarters of BMW who own Mini) who have had very stern words with us about it!
The dealerships original signage when it launched in December
‘Firstly our logo was deemed unacceptable, and we were told to remove it from our signage. Secondly, apparently, we’re not allowed to use the word MINI when we’re trying to sell used Minis.
‘Not on our signs, our flags or our website. We’re not even sure if we’re allowed to think the word now! They were so stern about it.’
Once the dealership had been informed of the problem by BMW, it took a tongue-in-cheek approach, by changing the ‘i’s to lower case, crossing out the ‘Ms’ and covering the logos with emojis.
However, this was followed up by a second letter that said there was still a problem so the dealership took further steps to rebrand as ‘iNi World’. You can see the changes in the dealer’s social media post above.
The group wrote on Facebook on March 30: ‘So we thought we’d sorted out our problem with our signs but unfortunately we hadn’t.
‘German HQ were back in touch last week following an update (including more photographic evidence!) from their local informer and they’re still not happy.
‘More stern words. We thought we had changed everything to make them happy. We want to make them happy. We covered up our logo, we took down our flags and we changed the way Mini was written, but this still was not enough for German HQ.
‘So now we’ve taken the further steps to keep them happy and hopefully it works this time. Check it out. Surely we can’t be upsetting them now.’
Speaking to Car Dealer, group sales manager Mark Hawthorn (pictured above) said that he doubts this will be the last they hear but that he couldn’t comment further on the issue.
He previously told the Daily Record: ‘We never thought it would be an issue, a relatively small local family-run business specialising in used Minis in a small town like Kilmarnock.
‘How many more used Mini specialists are there in the UK, which I am sure will also be using the word Mini?’
On Facebook, Bridgend Motor Group added that they believe someone local is informing BMW of the changes made and that they have asked the German brand what is acceptable but have not received any guidance.
A Mini UK spokesperson told Car Dealer: ‘We became aware that Bridgend Garage Ltd had been using the MINI brand name and logo to advertise their business.
‘Only authorized BMW Group retailers are allowed to use the MINI name and logo, and therefore Bridgend Garage Ltd was asked to cease use of these assets to prevent confusion.’
