6:30 am, June 5, 2020
Just weeks after the Cheshire-based firm resumed production at its factory, Bentley is to cut 1,000 jobs.
Voluntary redundancies are to be offered to about a quarter of Bentley’s 4,200 staff, with the company’s chief executive, Adrian Hallmark, telling the Financial Times: ‘We’ve literally done everything possible to compensate for a seven-week shutdown.’
He also said it was pretty much resigned to making a loss in 2020.
‘We have had 25 per cent of our revenue gone already and we only have half a year left to catch it back up, so it is going to be really tough to make any reasonable profit this year.’
It comes just weeks after the manufacturer, which was founded in north London in 1919 and is now owned by Volkswagen, resumed production at its headquarters in Crewe on May 11.
Around 1,700 workers returned to the Bentley factory, with Bentley predicting at the time the remainder of its workforce would return by the middle of June.
Yesterday, fellow luxury car producer Aston Martin announced 500 job cuts and dealer group Lookers announced it was shedding half of its workforce with 1,500 jobs due to be axed.
Many dealer groups and car manufacturers still have large proportions of their staff on the government’s furlough scheme, but with employers being asked to contribute from August 1 many firms will decide that is the point they can no longer keep all their staff.
Aston Martin said it will shortly launch consultations on the job losses, which have been driven by lower-than-planned production volumes and improved productivity.
Aston Martin said the restructuring is expected to cost around £12m. However, it added the strategy is intended to deliver £10m in operating cost savings each year.
Lookers said it was launching redundancy consultations across all areas of the group which are expected to see around 1,500 jobs go among its 8,100-strong workforce. This could mean that up to 12 people are axed at each one of its dealerships.
It comes as the Altrincham-based group revealed it will shut another 12 sites – either by closure, merging with other showrooms or refranchising – on top of the 15 dealerships being closed under plans announced in November.
The closures will leave it with 136 dealerships across the UK.
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