Agency staff may go as Jaguar tackles sales dip

Sep 1 2008 by Alistair Houghton, Liverpool Daily Post

MORE agency staff could be laid off at Jaguar Land Rover’s Halewood plant as the company attempts to cope with the credit crunch.

Luxury car sales have slumped in many markets, including JLR’s key US and UK markets, as the economic downturn bites, and the company says it wants to slow down production so it does not have to expensively stockpile unsold vehicles.

JLR, which was sold to India’s Tata motors earlier this year for £1.16bn, has also confirmed it could introduce up to three more “non-production days” next month at the plant, on top of the three it has already announced.

But the company says it has no plans to lay off any of its own permanent staff and says it is relying on expanding overseas sales to make up for any downturn in its core markets.

JLR has seen three years of record sales but has said it expects this year’s overall sales to be lower than last year’s, despite rising sales in some markets, including Russia and China.

The company has more than 2,000 permanent staff at Halewood building Jaguar X-Type cars and Land Rover Freelander 2 vehicles. It has “tens” of agency staff.

A spokeswoman at JLR in Halewood said: “We haven’t officially communicated that we will be losing any agency labour, but there is the potential that we could end some agency contracts over the next month or so.

“There are no plans to lose any permanent Jaguar Land Rover staff.”

Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders showed July UK registrations of Land Rovers were down 38% on July 2007.

Last month JLR announced three non-production days at Halewood on September 5, 12 and 15. Most staff will come to work while planning and maintenance work is carried out.

Up to three more non-production days could now be introduced in September.

Land Rover has confirmed it will cut production at its Solihull plant in the West Midlands by one day a week from this week and will axe a night shift at the site from October.

Land Rover’s corporate communications manager, Mark Foster, said: “In terms of Halewood, it’s fair to say that it’s still under review, but there is the likelihood of some non-production days in September.

He added that growth markets included Australia, Brazil, North Africa and the Middle East.

alistairhoughton