Toyota to cease UK production

Mar 10 2009 by John Cranage, Birmingham Post

The crisis enveloping the car industry worsened yesterday with news that Toyota is planning to cut production at its UK factories in a fresh move to reduce costs in the face of falling sales.

The Japanese giant, soon to announce its first annual losses, is set to ­announce tomorrow whether it will introduce a shorter working week or a temporary shutdown of its sites at Burnaston, near Derby, and Deeside in north Wales.

A company spokesman said: “We have to reduce our costs further. Our employees recognise that and we are seeking agreement with unions.”

Toyota, which employs 3,900 workers at Burnaston and 570 at Deeside, has already cut 200 temporary jobs and opened a voluntary redundancy scheme last week. It has also scrapped the ­annual pay increase for employees and cancelled management bonuses while both factories have just finished a fortnight’s shutdown. The new cuts will be in addition to those measures.

The plant in Burnaston makes the Avensis and Auris models, with 85 per cent of output exported. The group’s European sales fell by ten per cent last year.