Jaguar Land Rover is closing its Halewood factory for a week, the company has confirmed.
JLR yesterday told the workforce at Halewood, home of the X-type and Freelander, that the plant would join Castle Bromwich and Land Rover's Solihull plant on short-time working until the year's end.
Despite heading for a 20,000 sales boost this year, due to booming US sales in the first half of the year, Jaguar is trimming production at both its production plants in the wake of the credit crunch.
Sales of the XF saloon will lift production close to 80,000 new cars, a considerable increase on last year's disappointing output of 54,000, which was dragged down by the run-out of the S-type.
Halewood's week-long shutdown will coincide with the school half-term in late October, trimming production by around 2000 units. Output of the XJ and XK at Castle Bromwich is also being cut back by the loss of the Friday shift until the end of the year, as previously announced.
Land Rover's Solihull plant, which makes the Range Rover, RR Sport and Discovery, has been on short-time working since mid-August, also losing the Friday shift to take out around three weeks of production.
Despite these cutbacks, Land Rover is still predicting historically high sales of around 200,000 cars this year. It sold 226,000 cars in 2007.
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