Getrag Ford invests £88.5m at Halewood plant

MERSEYSIDE transmission specialist Getrag Ford has invested £88.5m developing a new six-speed gearbox.

The manual system has been designed for smaller front wheel drive cars and will be introduced in different Ford, Volvo and Mazda models.

The plant, which employs 700 staff, expects to produce 400,000 units a year, with capacity extended to 500,000 from 2014.

Getrag Ford, a joint venture between Ford and the German group Getrag, has also put staff through a training programme in preparation for the launch.

Plant manager Bob Taylor said: “This is a very important product for our plant and comes at the right time. It will safeguard our future and is also good news for the North West and Merseyside as a whole.”

The Halewood plant, next door to Tata Motors’ Land Rover factory, is one of the group’s four European production sites. The Cologne-based group employs a total of 12,700 staff.