Land Rover is to cut production at its Solihull plant and introduce a four-day week. Vehicle production will continue from Monday to Thursday but new owner Tata maintains the reductions will not lead to job losses.
Land Rover Discovery and Range Rover Sport models will no longer be produced on a Friday and some nightshifts, producing Range Rovers, will be suspended from October until the end of the year.
However, Defender production volumes will be slightly increased. The non-production Fridays will be turned into a training day for many workers, who will still be paid.
A Land Rover spokesperson said the move was intended to "redistribute workers to meet demand" and to "avoid stockpiling new cars, which isn't a good business plan."
She also confirmed that the cutbacks are in part due to the financial slow down in the United States and the UK, which has hit the premium car market hard. But despite the economic slump, Land Rover sales in China, Russia and the Middle East remain strong.Land Rover insists the reduced production will only affect annual output by a small percentage.Around 300 workers had already agreed to move from the Solihull plant to Jaguar's nearby Castle Bromwich site, where they will work on the production of the Jaguar XF.
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