First of two scheduled stops to accommodate for Brexit.
British automotive concern Jaguar-Land Rover has paused manufacturing work at four of its UK manufacturing facilities temporarily, as part of a contingency plan against a no-deal Brexit. This is one of two scheduled halts, the other over Easter, in response to Britain’s move to leave the European Union.
In addition to cost-savings, the production halts allow JLR to better align with its European suppliers in terms of scheduling, as parts coming to the UK from within the EU will now presumably take more time to pass through points of entry. JLR confirmed the temporary halt was due to a “Brexit matter,” while workers union Unite was a bit more forthcoming.
“We had to make some plans to protect the business as best we could and we started talking about [the temporary stops] back in January. We knew we had to take reactive action to mitigate the potential effect of a bad Brexit or a no-deal Brexit. Suppliers need notice to get their parts to us… so it was a prudent thing to do.” – Mick Graham, Convenor (Solihull), Unite the Union
Jaguar-Land Rover has been highly critical of Brexit, claiming very early on that by leaving the EU, the company would be subject to an additional burden in excess of £1.2-billion annually. As Brexit shows no sign of being reversed, JLR has already announced back in January that some 4,500 jobs would be made cut in order to improve overall cost efficiencies. Contributing to JLR’s woes are things like a slowdown in diesel demand, as well as reduced sales in China.
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