Jaguar Land Rover announces two-week shutdown at Solihull plant

It comes in the wake of a three-day week for 2,000 workers at its Jaguar plant in Castle Bromwich, running until Christmas, and the axing of 1,000 agency workers earlier this year.

The Wolverhampton engine factory on the i54 site, employing around 1,800 people, is not affected.

Solilhull is JLR's biggest single factory, making the firm's best-selling Range Rovers and Jaguar F-Pace cars. Around 9,000 people work across the 300-acre site. The shut-down will start on Monday, October 22.

In a statement today a Jaguar Land Rover 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."

It comes as the company revealed yet another sales drop in what has been a year of woe. September saw sales of 57,114 vehicles around the world, down 12.3 per cent on the same month last year, despite a strong performance from the Range Rover Velar and Jaguar E-Pace and electric I-Pace.

The biggest blow came from its major Chinese market, down more than 46 per cent, blamed on 'ongoing market uncertainty' from import duty changes and trade tension with the USA.

Sales also dipped in the UK, Europe and North America, with older models such as the Range Rover Evoque and the Land Rover Discover Sport both suffering.

Felix Brautigam, JLR's chief commercial officer, said: "As a business we are continuing to experience challenging conditions in some of our key markets.

"Customer demand in China in particular has struggled to recover following changes in import tariffs in July and intensifying competition on price, while ongoing global negotiations on potential trade agreements have dampened purchase considerations.

"Despite this, we expect lower tariffs on UK imports to be beneficial over the full year. “For Jaguar, we are continuing to see positive customer response to new products to market. The all-electric I-Pace and the sporty E-Pace compact SUV in particular, which have only recently joined our line-up in China, are driving demand globally.

“While sales of Land Rover models ahead of upcoming new and refreshed models are lower, we are encouraged to see strong customer demand for the new Range Rover Velar and Range Rover and Range Rover Sport Plug-in Hybrid variants as we head into the winter months."

Unions have blamed a "triple whammy’ of government incompetence" for the shutdown move, hitting out at Brexit uncertainty, government confusion over diesel and ministers’ "half-hearted support for electric vehicles" .

The biggest car workers' union, Unite, said described the shutdown as "deeply troubling with the potential to impact on the supply chain". Scores of car part manufacturing companies across the Black Country, Staffordshire and the wider West Midlands could be hit by the JLR move.

The union said no jobs are affected by the two week shutdown and workers will continue to be paid by banking hours. "Unite is in close dialogue with JLR and is calling for the government to use the budget to back jobs and the car industry as part of a coherent industrial strategy. "

Unite national officer Des Quinn said: “Government ministers’ trashing of diesel, despite the UK making some of the cleanest engines in the world, combined with their shambolic handling of Brexit is damaging the UK car industry and the supply chain.

“Add into the mix the government’s half-hearted support for the transition to electric and alternatively powered cars and you have a triple whammy facing the UK’s car workers.

“Over the past decade Jaguar Land Rover workers have worked tirelessly to turn the carmaker’s fortunes around. Ministers now risk turning them and their colleagues in the supply chain from hero to zero.

“The government must secure their future by getting a Brexit deal that secures frictionless tariff free trade with Europe. At the same time ministers must repair the damage done over diesel by supporting a ‘just transition’ to electric and alternative power vehicles as part of an industrial strategy.”

Unite acting regional secretary for the West Midlands Howard Beckett added: “News of the shutdown will be deeply troubling for JLR workers and their colleagues in the supply chain. JLR is a powerhouse of the West Midlands economy and a source for decent well paid jobs.

“Unite will be working closely with the company, while the West Midlands region gives our members maximum support possible through this troubling time. Going forward Unite will continue to press JLR on commitments for future models to be made here in the UK, but the government has serious questions to answer.

“JLR workers are world beaters at the cutting edge of the UK car industry and demand that this Tory government gets a grip on Brexit and meets their concerns for the future. Unite will be pulling every lever we can to make certain that the carmaker continues to play a leading role in the life and economy of the West Midlands.”