Ford is axing 275 managerial staff in the UK.
The job losses, which will be on a voluntary basis, will be at Ford’s Warley headquarters, and at the research and development centre at Dunton, both in Essex. In total, 500 such jobs are going across Ford’s Europe operations, as the company faces massive losses.
The American automotive giant's sales fell almost 10% in Europe during the first half of 2012, to its lowest level in 17 years.
In July Ford's estimate for its European losses rose to more than $1bn from between $500m and $600m.
Trade union Unite’s national officer for the automotive industry, Roger Maddison said: “Unite will be asking that its officers and reps have full involvement in this process which will be voluntary. It represents a 10 per cent cut in the 2,500-strong UK managerial and engineering workforce.
"Ford has said that it has excess capacity in these areas and we have to recognise the challenging economic conditions that Ford is facing, with losses of $1bn on its European operations this year.
Ford employs about 15,000 workers in the UK.
Ford's sales story in 2012 (2001 to 2012 YTD in the first graph). Data from SMMT. Source: AMi
Jeremy has been a journalist for 30 years, 20 of which have been in business-to-business automotive. He was a writer and news editor on AM-sister brand Fleet News for three years before setting up the AM website. For the last five years he has been Bauer B2B’s head of digital helping to manage the digital assets of AM, together with Fleet News, Commercial Fleet, Rail and Smart Transport.
chizzy - 27/09/2012 15:12
This is the real truth about the state of not just the vehicle market and it's associated industries, but the UK economy in general. When a company that produces as good a product as Ford does is having such problems then there is a serious issue to be addressed. I think we all knew that, but this sort of news underscores it several times. Rob Chisholm Applewood Vehicle Finance Ltd.