Pause at ID van plant
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by Karen Miles
• Production at Leyland Daf Van's Birmingham factory is to stop next month for two weeks. The company says it is further responding to the usual seasonal fall-off in orders for its Daf 200/400 vans but production will restart after the break.
A Leyland Daf spokesman says: "Across Europe a lot of our markets have slowed down and some markets have declined. Things could get worse and we won't build vans to sit around as stock in fields... It's a case of good management." About 40% of the factory's weekly output of 1,000 vehicles is exported to the Continent. There will be some paid layoffs among the 1,000 staff but many employees will work on training programmes or carry out maintenance at the Birmingham site.
Despite the unstable domestic political environment Leyland Daf reports a 5% rise in sales for the first nine months of the year compared to the same period in 1991. It has sold about 10,500 vans and at the first three days of the Birmingham Motor Show took orders for another 400, it says.
0 Ford's Southampton plant — closed last week because of lack of business (CM 22-28 Oct) — will continue with a one-day closure next week despite winning an order for 8,300 Transit vans from BT.
The deal is part of a £220 million contract with Ford with 18,800 commercial vehicles. BT is also buying 9,000 Escort vans and 1,500 Fiesta vans. BT has placed another contract for up to 14,500 Transits for delivery over the next three years.