Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed it will open a voluntary redundancy programme just a year on from a cyber attack which brought production to a halt for more than a month.
Britain’s biggest carmaker announced on Friday that it plans to save £1.7billion over the next two years after soaring costs, plunging sales and Donald Trump‘s tariffs created a ‘perfect storm’ of issues.
Reports on Friday suggested that as many as 4,000 employees could lose their jobs, though the company is yet to confirm whether that figure is accurate.
The news will come as a blow to Andy Burnham, who only weeks ago pledged to ‘reindustrialise’ Britain when he was given the keys to Downing Street.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) employs 34,000 across its three sites in England, while supporting a further 120,000 British jobs in the supply chain.
A spokesperson for the company told The Times: ‘Over the past three years, we have strengthened our house of brands and transformed our product portfolio for the next generation.
‘As we deliver the next phase of our strategy we must adapt to evolving global market conditions while targeting approximately £1.7billion of savings over the next two years and reduce break-evens to 300,000 vehicles.
‘To achieve this, we must further simplify our organisation, improve efficiency and build greater resistance.
Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed it will open a voluntary redundancy programme just a year on from a cyber attack which brought production to a halt for more than a month
‘[On Friday] we informed our colleagues and trade union partners that JLR is opening a voluntary redundancy programme offering salaried and management team members the opportunity to leave the business. We will share further information with our colleagues first.’
The announcement comes almost exactly a year after JLR was forced to shut down all of its manufacturing for several weeks following a cyber attack.
It meant that not a single vehicle could be produced, leading to a 27 per cent drop in production at the company. The overall cost of the attack was later estimated to have caused JLR a loss of £1.9billion.
The US’s introduction of a 10 per cent tariff on UK car imports has also taken a toll on the firm – and others across the globe.
North America represents 29 per cent of all sales worldwide and, since tariffs came in, a number of carmakers have decided to reduce staff in a bid to improve finances. Only last week, Volkswagen announced plans to cut some 50,000 jobs in what will be the biggest restructuring in the manufacturer’s history.
A new wave of more affordable Chinese car brands is also thought to have negatively affected JLR’s and other traditional companies’ sales.
After the cuts were confirmed earlier this week, the general secretary of the Unite Union, Sharon Graham, vowed to hold urgent talks with the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, and JLR boss PB Balaji.
She said the union had warned that a ‘perfect storm’ of financial issues has been hanging over the auto industry ‘for years’.
‘Death by a thousand cuts has been going on under the nose of successive governments,’ Graham added.
‘Years of under-investment, unsustainable zero-emission vehicle mandates and high industrial energy costs are crippling the industry. There must be further action.
‘There have been intensive government discussions over the weekend to look at how to mitigate these job losses at JLR.
‘Once again, we will leave no stone unturned to support these workers. It cannot be acceptable that workers again are made to pay the price.’
