JOB CULL
Jaguar Land Rover to cut 4,500 jobs as Ford announces shake-up for staff too
The job losses at Jaguar Land Rover will mainly affect those in management, marketing and administrative roles
CAR giants Jaguar Land Rover and Ford are to cut thousands of jobs, blaming uncertainty surrounding Brexit and a lack of demand for diesel vehicals.
Jaguar Land Rover today announced that it will be culling up to 4,500 jobs, while Ford plans a major cost-cutting shake up of it's European operations.
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Britain's biggest carmaker, Jaguar Land Rover, employs 44,000 workers in the UK at sites in Halewood on Merseyside and Solihull, Castle Bromwich and Wolverhampton in the West Midlands.
It said the cuts will be made to management as part of a wider restructuring plan that will save the company £1billion.
The firm will launch a voluntary redundancy programme in the UK and has confirmed that the cuts won't affect production line staff.
In October last year the car giant unveiled a £2.5 billion turnaround plan that included cost cutting after Brexit uncertainty and slowing demand in China left it nursing a hefty second-quarter loss.
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The firm's figures were also affected by the introduction of European emissions standards known as WLTP, which resulted in a fall in demand for diesel cars.
In China, demand weakened following a number of import duty changes and escalating trade tensions with the US.
For the UK side of the business, Jaguar Land Rover blamed "continuing uncertainty related to Brexit".
As a result, the brand, owned by Indian conglomerate Tata, reported a £90 million pre-tax loss in the three months to September 30, compared to a £385million profit in the same period the year before.
At the time boss Ralf Speth said: "In the latest quarterly period, we continued to see more challenging market conditions.
"Our results were undermined by slowing demand in China, along with continued uncertainty in Europe over diesel, Brexit and the WLTP changeover."
The firm cut 1,000 temporary contract workers at its plant in Solihull in 2017.
Meanwhile, it's not yet clear on the exact implications of Ford's shake up an what impact it will have on UK workers.
In a statement, Steven Armstrong, Group Vice President for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: "We are taking decisive action to transform the Ford business in Europe."
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Thursday's announcement is expected to include details of sales for 2018, the business outlook for this year, an update on cost savings and planned investment in UK plants.
Meanwhile Rolls-Royce Motor Cars chief executive Torsten Muller-Otvos has pledged that the carmaker will remain in Britain post-Brexit.
The commitment came as the company unveiled record sales figures, up 22 per cent in 2018 on the previous year, but it axed 4,600 jobs in June last year.
Yesterday, we reported how Jaguar Land Rover suspended a worker who posed with a mock suicide vest while allegedly joking he would "pull the string and blow up".
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