About 340 jobs are at risk after Japanese car giant Honda, on Monday said it plans to cut production at its UK factory in Swindon from three shifts to two.

The factory in Swindon, Wiltshire builds the Civic, Civic Tourer, CR-V and Jazz models – mostly for export, but sales in sales in other countries have not been as strong as in the UK.
Besides moving to only 2 shifts, the automaker said it will use only one production line in order to increase efficiency.

“Over the last 12 months, we haven’t seen the growth we’d anticipated. With no increase forecast for the next couple of years, we must scale our manufacturing activity accordingly,” said Ian Howells, senior vice president of Honda Motor Europe.

Honda builds vehicles in at Swindon since 1992. The factory has a total capacity of about 250,000 cars annually – but in 2014 the company plans to make just 120,000 units – down from 140,094 cars in 2013 and 165,607 in 2012.
The announcement comes after Honda already cut about 800 jobs in the UK last year. In UK, Honda stated to build vehicles in 1992.

Source: Inautonews.com