Land Rover plant managers and union officials this week announced a plan to improve productivity at the Solihull plant, avoiding a widely-expected closure.
Land Rover plant managers and union officials this week announced a plan to improve productivity at the Solihull plant, avoiding a widely-expected closure.
The plant currently produces all three Land Rover models, including the original Defender, and production will now continue without any job losses. The first proposal on improvements for the plant’s productivity was rejected last week.
Executive vice president of Ford Europe and PAG Mark Fields, and Joe Greenwall, chairman and chief executive of Jaguar and Land Rover, said progress had been encouraging, but maintained that the unions and plant management had not done enough.
However, this week’s announcement was welcomed by all parties involved as the rescue bid was aimed at making Land Rover a competitive global manufacturer.
After the announcement was made, Fields said the response by managers and workers at the Solihull meetings had been positive. He said the plan was detailed enough to achieve the same level of competitiveness seen at the Jaguar factories within three years.
“I am prepared to work with the team to deliver on the ultimate objective of world-class levels in five years,” Fields said. “The outcome is a very important step forward and the key now is securing employee commitment to the plan and its implementation.
“We will give the team all the support we can to achieve that and I look forward to reviewing progress by the end of the year.”