Jaguar Land Rover to halt production amid Brexit woes

LONDON: Tata Motors owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has announced plans to halt production for a week at its UK plants in April due to Brexit-related disruption. Britain’s largest carmaker said the temporary production stand-down would take place between April 8 and 12 and affect all three of Jaguar Land Rover’s UK car plants, as well as its engine plant. “We have confirmed this year’s holiday dates to employees across all UK sites. As part of this, we have also confirmed that there will be an additional week of production stand-down 8th-12th April due to potential Brexit disruption,” a JLR spokesperson said. Britain is set to leave the EU by the deadline of March 29 but the process has been mired in controversy. The JLR has warned against a hard exit from the 28-member economic bloc, which would adversely hit its supply chains and put jobs at risk.
The JLR employs just under 39,000 workers at its UK sites — Castle Bromwich, Solihull and Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, and Halewood on Merseyside. The plan to pause production follows an announcement earlier this month that the company is to cut 4,500 jobs in a bid to cut costs of up to 2.5 billion pounds. The luxury car brand had closed its main plant in Solihull for two weeks in October last year to reflect “fluctuating demand” in key markets like China. The company has told the government that, while its “heart and soul” are in the UK, a bad Brexit or a “no-deal” scenario would severely impact the company’s plans