The US car and van giant, Ford, has today announced that 850 British jobs are to disappear in response to falling demand. More than 50% of these losses will be at their Southampton plant which manufacturers the Ford Transit van.
Ford follows in the tyre tracks of Nissan who last month cut 1,200 jobs and Jaguar Land Rover who cut 450 jobs. The job losses also follow the news that Honda will shut their UK based factories for four months in a bid to reduce costs and stave off the threat of redundancies.
The news is not surprising given that Ford has recently posted record losses and the demand for cars and vans continues to collapse because of the global credit crunch. Indeed, the Society of Motor Traders and Manufacturers (SMTM) today announced that new car registrations fell by 30.9% on the year in January to 112,087.
Ford also make the Transit Connect van together with the Ford Mondeo, Focus, Fiesta and Ford KA cars.
