A close-up of the Bridgend Ford Apparatus plant sign on June 5, 2019 in Bridgend, Wales. Union sources have said the engine plant in Bridgend when one pleases close in September 2020.
Matthew Horwood | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Ford has confirmed that its mechanism factory in Bridgend, Wales will close in September next year.
The U.S. firm said the decision was part of a point transformation to create more efficiency in its European operations. Ford specifically blamed the loss of a contract to supply Jaguar Acreage Rover with engines and a lack of demand for its 1.5 liter engines.
“Creating a strong and sustainable Ford concern in Europe requires us to make some difficult decisions, including the need to scale our global engine manufacturing footprint to vanquish serve our future vehicle portfolio,” said Stuart Rowley, president, Ford of Europe in a statement confirming the get.
“We are committed to the U.K.; however, changing customer demand and cost disadvantages, plus an absence of additional engine models for Bridgend current forward make the plant economically unsustainable in the years ahead.”
Ford expects to book charges of about $650 million in respecting to the closure with about two-thirds of that figure being used for employee compensation.
Ford has been on the milieu since 1977 and the plant currently has around 1,700 employees.
The leader of the U.K.’s second largest union described Ford’s firmness as a “grotesque act of economic betrayal.”
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said his organization would fight the closure.
“These women and this community have stayed faithful to Ford, as have U.K. customers — this is still Ford’s largest European Stock Exchange — through thick and thin, but have been treated disgracefully in return by this company,” he added.