New Range Rover for Halewood
A SMALL and fuel efficient Range Rover is to be built at Jaguar Land Rover’s Halewood plant creating 800 jobs.
The company, owned by India’s Tata Motors, announced the move today as it unveiled a wide-ranging business plan that will see it close one of its two West Midlands factories.
It wants to build more vehicles in fewer places but said there would be no compulsory redundancies as sales growth will keep workers employed.
In July Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) announced 300 job cuts at Halewood as part of 2,500 group-wide cuts it made in response to the economic slump.
But the decision to build a production version of the LRX Concept will reassure workers in Halewood of JLR’s commitment to the factory, which was described as, “world class” and “multi-award winning” in today’s statement.
Production of the X-Type Jaguar is due to end this year, a move which had left the site with one model, the Land Rover Freelander.
Global car sales have dropped by up to 30% and production at JLR has dropped by more than 100,000 vehicles over the past year. As well as job cuts the company has also cancelled bonuses and frozen pay.
It said it plans to increase efficiency and would further cut costs through, “pension restructuring, lower employment costs for new hires and a focus on IT and business simplification.”
JLR’s chief executive David Smith said: “This is a plan that recognises the impact the economic collapse has had on our business, and at the same time the opportun ities that lie ahead for these two great brands.
“We are confident that a new more efficient and competitive structure combined with future investment will unlock the true potential of this business.”
Christopher Clay, senior investment director at Rensburg Sheppards, said: “This is good news not only for car manufacturing on Merseyside, but also for the extensive supply chain of companies throughout the region which rely on a successful plant.
“With a more substantial order pipeline in sight, this will increase opportunities for automotive industries in the area to access finance and investment in what has been a difficult period.
“JLR has clearly recognised the potential of investing further in Halewood’s high quality workforce and production facilities for their next generation of vehicles.”
