Range Rover Evoque to support 5,000 supply chain jobs
THE new Range Rover Evoque will support 5,000 supply chain jobs in the North West as well as create 1,500 new positions directly, according to Richard Else, operations director at Jaguar Land Rover Halewood. where the new model will be built.
Mr Else told TheBusinessDesk.com that around 500 posts had already been filled at Halewood, which already employs 2,000 people building the Freelander.
“We have been inundated with applications, and we’ve been really impressed by the quality. We’re around a third of the way through the recruitment process.
“The impact of this investment (in Evoque) is huge. In the immediate vicinity we’re talking around 5,000 supply chain jobs.”
He said Halewood had won the build project due to its ‘proven track record of performance and the passion of the workforce to secure its future’.
Mr Else revealed that the plant was currently making around 70,000 Land Rover Freelander models a year, but Halewood had the capacity to make between 150,000 and 180,000 units per year.
“Interest in Evoque has been strong – we believe it will open up a new market for us. The first models should be completed in July and then will go on sale at the back end of the year.”
Business Secretary Vince Cable who visited Halewood yesterday, and said the investment in the two-door Evoque – which will be priced from £25,500 – was part of a wider renaissance in the British automotive sector.
He said ‘something something very big and something very positive’ was taking place with investment from Jaguar LandRover, Ford and General Motors in the UK.
“The potential for more of this is enormous. Many of us remember when the British car industry was on its knees and people had written it off. We now have a big expansion of production taking place.
“The industry went through a terrible time in the recession and they are building up again. British manufacturers are exporting 75% of all production so this is a very positive story in an industry that a generation ago was written off.”
He said the British Automotive Council estimates there is up to £2bn more supply chain work that could come back to the UK from Europe, and this could create “tens of thousands of jobs”.
Dr Cable said praised the flexibility of the workforces in the automotive sector, which he said had helped British-based plants ‘cope extraordinarily well with the recession.’
This combined with ‘selective’ Government support – £26m was provided to JLR for the Evoque project –, the competitive exchange rate, and tough measures to tackle the deficit, “makes the UK a good location to invest.”
