DAF to cut 250 jobs from Leyland plant

DAF Trucks has recently announced several proposals to cut 250 jobs from its Leyland, Lancashire factory, which is more or less a fifth of the site’s workforce, blaming a dramatic slowdown in the demand for new HGVs.  This follows an announcement at the end of October, which stipulated that DAF was only to cut the night shift at the plant, and thus pointing out that most of the lay-offs would probably be amongst temporary workers. Moreover, the HGV-maker has now started a 90-day consultation with unions over the lay-offs, which will officially take effect from February 2009.

However, DAF spokesman Tony Pain says:

“Ironically, it’s on the back of a couple of the best months for registrations that we’ve had for a long, long time. But this is merely a response to where we all fear the market will be next year. All our forecast are looking pretty gloomy. Unfortunately, it will be a drastic reduction from where we have been of late. A lot of people are just not buying HGVs.”

In conclusion, the Leyland plant assembles the entire DAF range for the UK market, XFs for export included. In addition to this, Birmingham-based van manufacturer LDV is also to cut 90 production jobs. In fact, a spokesman attributes the decision to falling demand for the Maxus, particularly in Russia and Eastern Europe.