GM’s manufacturing operations, at Luton and Ellesmere Port, have smashed previous records for vehicle production.

Ellesmere Port has achieved its highest ever output figures building 188,763 cars in 2005 – over 20,000 more than the previous record in 2000.

The plant, which is responsible for making the Vauxhall and Opel five-door Astra, earlier this year also celebrated building its four millionth vehicle.

Sixty-four per cent of the vehicles produced at Ellesmere will be exported to Europe wearing the Opel badge.

GM’s Luton plant (formerly known as IBC Vehicles) has also been topping its previous output figures. This year the plant is on course to produce 90,338 vans, the highest number of Vivaros made since the start of production.

Bill Parfitt, managing director of GM UK & Ireland, said: 'This is a major achievement for us and could not have been accomplished without the hard work and dedication of our workforce. We are proud to be continuing our tradition of manufacturing in the UK so successfully. Both Astra and Vivaro have been delighting customers across Europe – and building them to the highest standards of quality is a challenge the plants meet every day, week in, week out. Next year we will keep building hoping to break more records for both sales and production.'