9:19 am, July 26, 2013
FORD’S Transit factory in Southampton will close its doors later today.
The facility at Swaythling in Southampton employs 500 workers and has built two million Transits since 1972.
Ford’s iconic workhorse will now be produced in Turkey where it can be built more cheaply. That and falling European vehicle sales have influenced the decision.
The 500 workers affected by the closure have taken voluntary redundancy, early retirement or redeployment. But Ford has revealed that the creation of a new vehicle distribution centre costing £12m in Southampton will create 134 jobs.
The Blue Oval first announced the plant’s closure in October. At the time Justin Bowden, national officer of the GMB union, said: ‘This is devastating news for the workers in Southampton and Dagenham and is very bad news for UK manufacturing.
‘Ford’s track record in Britain is one of broken promises and factory closures. There will be a feeling of shock and anger, and Ford’s commitment on investment will cut little ice.’
Speaking to Car Dealer at last year’s Paris Motor Show, Ford of Europe’s vice president of sales and marketing, Roelant de Ward said: ‘Europe is moving at very different speeds. Germany has held up very well at around 3.4m cars. France is pretty stable at 2.4m, the Nordic markets are pretty stable too.
‘Then you have the UK that came down a little bit then bottomed out and stablised. Then there is the south which is up to 70 per cent down. Things are tough.
‘The car market is cyclical,’ added de Ward. ‘A recession requires everybody to rethink what they do. I am very confident about the future, but that doesn’t mean these are not very challenging times.’
Southampton isn’t the only Ford UK plant being closed, however. A stamping and tooling operations site in Dagenham, Essex will also close its doors affecting 750 workers.
Ford’s engine plants at Dagenham and Bridgend are unaffected and continue to produce engines for Ford’s global vehicle range.
