Ford's manufacturing plant in Southampton, home of the Transit van, is to halve its production by 2011. Currently the site produces 75,000 Transit vans a year but Ford plans to wind down production to 35,000 over the next three years. Ford Southampton will now become the home of chassis cab variants for the next model of the Transit in what Ford describes as a "financially viable" investment for the plant.
Plant
manager Martin Chapman says in a memo to staff: "Such a plan would still require significant investment in Southampton, and also require reductions in operating costs to enable the financial targets for the programme to be protected. The plan would provide the plant with a firm role in Transit manufacturing into the next decade," he adds.
However Union Unite believes the plan would lead to the closure of Southampton in the long term. Unite national officer Dave Osborne says: "Europe has been Ford's saving grace and the UK is Ford's biggest European market. If Ford can invest $653m in a plant in Romania, then Unite believes that Ford can invest $200m in the UK."
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