HALEWOOD’s Getrag Ford transmission plant will today celebrate the start of production of a new six-speed gearbox, after an £88.5m investment.
Situated next door to Tata Motors’ Land-Rover factory, the plant employs almost 700 staff making transmissions for a variety of vehicles.
Getrag-Ford is a 50-50 joint venture between car giant Ford and German transmissions manufacturer Getrag, who have invested in new, more efficient production facilities and a substantial training package for staff who, earlier this year, feared for their jobs.
They were told to take a month off over the normal two-week Christmas shutdown due to falling orders, and then staged an unofficial walkout over claims a sister site in Bordeaux would take work from them.
Bordeaux is now producing the old five-speed transmission made on Merseyside, because the Halewood plant is now making a new six-speed manual transmission which Getrag Ford said sets new standards.
