Five-day shutdown begins on Ford’s Jaguar engine line
Ford production line that builds engines for Jaguar Land Rover closes for five days — following JLR’s two-week plant closure
Production has temporarily ceased on a line at Ford’s Bridgend plant that supplies engines to Jaguar Land Rover.
The AJ production line at the south Wales factory began a five-day shutdown yesterday. While no official reason has been publicly stated for the closure, a letter sent to employees by Ford HR, obtained by WalesOnline, blamed Jaguar Land Rover’s temporary shutdown at its plants.
It read: “As you are no doubt aware, Jaguar Land Rover have recently announced a temporary cessation of vehicle production in the plants.
“Inevitably, this has had a knock-on effect in a reduced demand for the component parts from their supply base, including ourselves here at BEP [Bridgend Engine Plant].
“As such we have introduced five lay off days from Monday 29 October 2018 to Friday 2 November 2018 during which AJ production will cease and only activities that have business criticality or cost reduction opportunities will be undertaken.”
WalesOnline reports staff on the line have been told not to come in and will receive basic pay for the five-day period. No other production lines in the plant are believed to be affected.
Jaguar Land Rover’s Solihull factory is currently in the midst of a two-week closure, which began on October 22, following a decline in demand for its cars, while its Castle Bromwich factory is on a three-day week until Christmas. In September, the firm reported sales of 57,114 vehicles – a 12.3 per cent drop year-on-year.
Following the announcement of the Solihull closure, a JLR spokesperson said: “As part of the company’s continued strategy for profitable growth, Jaguar Land Rover is focused on achieving operational efficiencies and will align supply to reflect fluctuating demand globally as required.
“The decision to introduce a two-week shutdown period later this month at Solihull is one example of actions we are taking to achieve this. Customer orders in the system will not be impacted and employees affected will be paid for the duration of the shutdown.”
