THE past, present and future of Oxford’s largest employer is being celebrated as the Cowley car factory turns 100.

While today’s celebrations focus on the streets of Oxford with a cavalcade of 40 Cowley-made vehicles, yesterday’s events centred on the plant itself where special guests gathered to see a new exhibition ooking at the last 100 years of success.

Those in attendance had a glimpse of the future as well, as robots that will be used at the plant in the years to come went on display.

Launching the exhibition BMW Plant director Frank Bachmann said: “We are adding 1,000 robots for the next generation Mini – they don’t just save time and money, they also bring reliable quality.”

However, he added: “The story of Plant Oxford is about people – people who have worked here, suppliers who have worked with the factory, and people who work here now.”

Mr Bachmann said the plant was still Oxford’s largest industrial employer, with a workforce of almost 4,000, and was still recruiting, with 45 apprentices joining this week.

“All who work here are conscious of the great history this plant is steeped in,” he said.

BMW is investing £750m in its UK Mini plants between now and 2015, including an extension to the Oxford bodyshop, where the new robots are being installed.

A Tiger Moth aircraft, made at the factory during the Second World War, was on show at the Cowley plant, one hundred years to the day when the first “Bullnose” Morris Oxford was built by William Morris.

BMW board member Harald Krueger promised a bright future for Mini, saying BMW would start production next year at a new plant in the Netherlands to meet increased demand which was beyond the capacity of the Cowley plant. But he emphasised: “Oxford will remain the international hub and centre of excellence for the Mini. Oxford is to Mini as Munich is to BMW.

“After 100 years Oxford can look back at an impressive success, and it can also look forward to a great future.”

Former factory managing director Eric Lord received a Morris cake for his 93rd birthday from engineering apprentice Natalie Murray, 23, from Abingdon.

The Boars Hill resident who joined the firm during the Second World War, said: “In those days the line moved fast – two minutes per man and quarter of a mile long. There were so many men trying to do work on the car at the same time that they fell over each other.”

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin congratulated BMW on its transformation of Cowley into a 21st-century manufacturing centre.

Prime Minister and Witney MP David Cameron sent his congratulated. He said: “The substantial contribution which the Oxford plant has made to the local area and the British economy over the last 100 years is something we should be proud of.”

Kevin Minns, the great-nephew of the factory’s founder, William Morris – later Lord Nuffield – will be an honoured guest at today’s Cowley cavalcade.

The procession will leave the Cowley car factory at about 9am and travel past sites associated with the factory’s history, including the former Cowley military college where Morris had his factory, to the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, built with the help of his money.

The vehicles will drive past Morris’s former garage in Longwall Street, before arriving in Broad Street at 10.30am where they will remain until 4pm.

Mr Minns, who lives in Summertown and is a trustee of Lord Nuffield’s former home near Wallingford, said: “It’s going to be a great day.”