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The UK arm of Visteon, a car parts supplier that was separated from Ford in 2000, has gone into administration, putting hundreds of jobs at risk.

Visteon UK, which employs around 600 people at factories in Basildon, Belfast and Enfield, and makes various vehicle components including interiors, filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday. The company said the move was directly related to the global downturn in car production, due to slumping sales.

"Despite extensive restructuring eff...Read the full article

Visteon have had troubles for a while....I hope everyone does keep their jobs, maybe a buyer can be found (hopefully) and I wish the technology/customer centre all the best....at least that part has been saved if nothing else.

North:

Visteon have had troubles for a while....I hope everyone does keep their jobs, maybe a buyer can be found

keep taking the happy pills North, 500 of the 600 jobs at the three affected plants were axed yesterday by the administrators. There's now a sit in at all three plants after it started in Belfast yesterday. Their custom has gone. Accordng to the FT 80% of their turnover came from Ford(JLR) in 2008. With JLR now down 30, 40, 50% on this time last year and unsold vehicles backing up the delivery schedules to captive suppliers like Visteon will be effectively nil for months to come. Ford(Visteon)/UK should be grateful that British(Irish) workers don't take the route of the French and capture management - Caterpillar.

Unemployment/job-axing in the UK surprising as it may sound has been suppressed thus far with saps being lulled into thinking this will all soon recover. All that's happening is unit wage costs are ballooning as green, never-seeing-true-hard-times management hang on to workforces as demand plummets. See yesterday's ONS productivity figures - manufacturing productivity down 6% in the last three months. Once the penny drops that this is a step change and not ephemeral the blood-letting will begin in earnest.

Any idea of the knock on effects to the manufacturers they supplied, and which parts they were?