Some had already been to MG Rover's Longbridge plant to try to reclaim goods.
BMW's investment programme for Longbridge and the new model to be built there was not an act of charity.
Most of the brainy or so-called added-value activity still takes place at Longbridge.
But Mr Towers dismissed these on Thursday at a rally of shop stewards and workers at Rover's Longbridge plant.
In the afternoon, they get to grips with factory equipment that has been shipped from Rover's former Longbridge plant.
And the economy is currently buoyant, not in deep recession as it was last time Longbridge was at risk.
At least 45 people were led to safety at the scene in Coney Green Drive, Longbridge, the fire service said.
Mr Page has run his business in Longbridge Lane, a few hundred yards from the Rover plant, for 40 years.
Officers from the force's serious collisions investigation unit closed the road at the scene, near Longbridge Wharf, for several hours.
By that time I had also witnessed the now-notorious mass meetings in Cofton Park near the Longbridge car plant in Birmingham.
Birmingham Northfield MP Richard Burden, whose constituency covers part of the Longbridge plant, urged BMW to begin serious negotiations with Phoenix.
Richard Burdon, the Labour MP for Birmingham Northfield, which includes Longbridge, said people needed to understand the scale of the deal.
Rebecca had been due to travel home to Longbridge, Birmingham, last Wednesday.
The spare unused capacity on the vast Longbridge site remains enormous.
He could also turn strike-breaker, telling the Longbridge toolmakers to go back to work and brokering a secret pay-deal for Ford car-workers with the government.
Richard Burden, Labour MP for Longbridge, Birmingham, tabled a written parliamentary question on Monday asking the transport secretary to make a statement on the cancellations.
The Mini was used by workers to travel around the car plant at Longbridge in Birmingham but was dumped in the late-1970s after it was damaged.
But job cuts and flexible working will not be enough to safeguard the future of Longbridge, which employs 14, 000 and makes a selection of ageing models.
St Modwen and local authorities have wider ambitions for the Longbridge site, which would see up to 10, 000 jobs created through a mixture of housing, retail and industrial developments.
Even though Alchemy has been handed Rover on a plate, it is hard to see the venture capitalists finding the huge sums needed for new models to make Longbridge viable.
Gemma Cartwright, organiser of the Pride of Longbridge rally, said she would have liked the car to stay on site, where former factory workers are trying to set up a museum.
At first glance, the jobs argument seems a bit stronger for Longbridge, since as many as 50, 000 may be at stake, and unlike Airbus they are already in a high-unemployment area.
Ministers say they are furious that BMW was discussing the sell-off while the UK government was in negotiations with the European Commission in Brussels over an aid package for Rover's Longbridge factory.
The original Mini first went on sale in 1959 and more than five million were sold up to October 2000 when Rover, then owned by BMW, ceased production at Longbridge in Birmingham.
BBC: NEWS | UK | England | Oxfordshire | New Mini at half-million landmark
Longbridge is a huge site and we need to make sure that the redevelopment which is taking place beyond the MG factory itself adds real value to the potential which this area has.
It means police have the power to confiscate alcohol from people on streets in the Hodge Hill, Yardley, Hall Green, Longbridge, Weoley Castle areas, as well as parts of Aston and Handsworth Wood.
Like an ageing family pet, Rover is fit only for putting down, but the government is afraid of 6, 000 jobs going at the Longbridge plant on the outskirts of Birmingham, surrounded by Labour-held marginal seats.
The infrastructure, including a substantial building programme, has already been built at Longbridge to facilitate the production of the new Mini and BMW, and productivity at the site has increased hugely in the last 12 months.
For Mr Wen, Longbridge - which only six years ago was a symbol of British industrial failure following the collapse of Rover - shows the opportunities available to both China and the UK from deepening industrial ties.
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