Japanese car giant Honda is to cut almost 25 per cent of jobs at its UK factory after a slump in demand across Europe.
Workers at the firm’s plant in Swindon, which employs 3,500 people, were told the news as they arrived this morning.
Honda, which has been making cars in the UK since 1992, has never made job cuts before in this country, but said demand for cars in Europe, including Greece, Italy and Spain, had fallen by a million in the past year.
The company gave the statutory 90-day notice of consultation and said it would seek to avoid compulsory redundancies.
Ken Keir, executive vice president of Honda Motor Europe, said: “Sustained conditions of low demand in European markets make it necessary to re-align Honda’s business structure.
“As such, Honda of the UK Manufacturing will enter into formal consultation with its associates to consider these changes and the proposal that it will reduce the workforce by 800 associates by spring 2013.”
Dundee-born Keir added: “Honda remains fully committed for the long term to its UK and European manufacturing operations. However, these conditions of sustained low industry demand require us to take difficult decisions.
“We are setting the business constitution at the right level to ensure long-term stability and security.”
Swindon is Honda’s flagship production facility in Europe and manufactures the Civic and CR-V models. In October, it announced that Swindon would be the production base for two more models, the new Civic Type R and Civic Wagon.