Vauxhall: Ellesmere Port plant saved – 700 new jobs created

Vauxhall Ellesmere Port - Saved

General Motors is to keep Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port open, move to three shift working and create 700 new jobs.

The overcapacity of mainstream car manufacture in Europe as the market becomes ever more polarised between premium and budget cars – squeezing the middle – means car maker having to rationalise their output.

Many thought that could mean the end of Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port as GM sought to stem its European losses (around £2 billion in the last three years), especially as it is easier to close plants and lay off workers in the UK than in mainland Europe.

But thanks to a combination of the pragmatism of the workforce at Ellesmere Port who have voted by a massive 94 per cent in favour of flexible working with 24/7 three shifts, the intervention of the UK government at the highest levels to persuade GM that the UK is the best place for them to do business and probably the Euro Zone meltdown, GM are to save Ellesmere Port.

GM has confirmed that the new Astra will be built at Ellesmere Port, creating 700 jobs in the process, which will probably mean GM closing their Opel facility in Bochum, Germany.

Well done all involved.

By Cars UK