Workers at the Cowley Mini plant have been praised for "exceeding expectations" by BMW bosses.

The annual conference in Munich was told the car is on track to beat sales targets again this year and helped to boost the group's pre-tax profits by 25.5 per cent to £2.8bn.

BMW's dividend will rise nine per cent and the group is to return 700m euros to shareholders. Kay Segler, head of Mini for BMW worldwide, said: "The Oxford colleagues produce day and night and I admire them for that. We are exceeding expectations every day."

With the United States overtaking the UK as the Mini's biggest market, Mr Segler was asked if BMW would consider opening a factory abroad, but he said: "No way. Mini stays with Oxford."

Buyers have to wait several months for their Mini to be delivered, but Frank-Peter Arndt, BMW's head of production, said waiting times would reduce during the year as the Oxford plant gradually upped production from 200,000 to 240,000 cars a year to keep pace with sales.

He defended BMW's policy of not increasing production faster to meet demand, saying: "We are interested in steady long-term growth. If you just look into the sales and ignore brand, you lose exclusivity."

Asked whether capacity could grow still further at Cowley, he said the "theoretical maximum capacity" of the plant was 300,000. He said: "If we had the chance, we could do it."

But he said better productivity would not mean the Cowley headcount - recently increased from 4,500 to 4,700 - would rise by the same proportion.