IT'S a long way from Birmingham to Nanjing in China, but, in terms of world markets, it appears to be covered in almost the blink of an eye.

Last week, there were quite a few distinctive West Midlands accents to be heard in and around Nanjing to mark the incredible rebirth of one of the most dominant brands in UK manufacturing history.

In its day, MG has been synonymous with style, speed and cutting edge design of sports cars built for real, wind-in-the-hair motoring.

With the tragic demise of its parent company Rover, MG was heading for the scrapheap, until, that is, China's state-owned Nanjing Automobile bought the assets of the conglomerate in 2005.

The rest may not yet be history but the re-launch will also earn its place in a hall of fame somewhere.

It's also a textbook lesson in brand management – Chinese style.Think of those two letters MG, and bring to mind all the images they evoke in your mind's eye.

Think too of the strength of that brand and, to be fair, others in the Rover family. And think how much time, money and marketing expertise has been wasted in establishing them in their markets.

I say wasted, because from now on MG means Mature Gentlemen. Yes, that's the new marketing banner under which these cars are being sold in China.

It's enough to make a generation of MG drivers skid off the road into the nearest ditch.

And yet, it's also a very good example of the way in which a hugely successful brand can be stretched, albeit in this case close to breaking point.

Nanjing Automobile is in this for more than the ride. It plans to build 200,000 new cars every year. Some will even be for export to other mature gentlemen elsewhere in the world.

But most, according to Nanjing Automobile, will be sold to the booming, if not yet mature, domestic market.

Here, demand for luxury vehicles is soaring among the country's new elite. Some of whom, I guess, must be those mature gentlemen.

And, if UK manufacturing as a whole needed a wake up call about the scale of the China's intent in all its business activities, consider this: In six short months the Chinese have built a massive new factory and installed robots and assembly lines they bought from the collapsed Rover.

Notwithstanding the cost of exporting assembled cars from the UK to China, there will be some who say not enough was done to save Rover – for example by spotting these huge new market opportunities in the way Nanjing has.

The demise of Rover has been a tough and tragic lesson for businesses throughout the West Midlands.

And for memories of one of Britain's best-known and loved manufacturing brands, we'll have to rely on mature gentlemen to reminisce about their hair-raising days on the road.

MATT JOHNSON is chairman of Mando group