Carmaker shut down production in March amid the coronavirus lockdown but is now getting ready to resume production with a single shift. Tony McDonough reports
Carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is to resume production at its factory in Halewood as the UK prepares to slowly emerge from the coronavirus lockdown.
In March, JLR shut down production at Halewood, at its two plants in the West Midlands, on the advice of the NHS and Public Health England. Now the the company has announced it will resume production on June 8 with one shift in operation.
Halewood employs around 4,000 people, although job cuts are planned, and all but an essential skeleton crew were furloughed in March. The company is not saying how many will return in June but said a number of workers would remain furloughed.
JLR will be keen to restart assembling the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport models at the Halewood plant with both models proving to be popular global sellers over the past 12 months. Sales of the new generation Evoque, in particular, were up 25% in the past year.
In a statement, the company said: “The health and wellbeing of our employees is our first priority. We are developing robust protocol and guidelines to support the safety of our colleagues at work.
“We have adopted strict social distancing measures across our business and are currently evaluating a number of different measures to ensure we protect and reassure our workforce when more people begin to return to work. We continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation and follow the guidance of all relevant authorities in the markets in which we operate.”
Prior to the pandemic JLR was on track with its turnaround strategy and had enjoyed a return to profitability and sales growth. The continuing uncertainty over coronavirus has been a huge setback for the business.
In late April the business, owned by India-based Tata Motors, said it was going to install new plug-in hybrid technology into the two vehicles it currently produces at Halewood factory. The 1.5-litre three-cylinder plug-in hybrid combines a conventional petrol engine.