Scotland’s Finance and Economy Secretary, Derek Mackay, held urgent talks yesterday with trade unions and the management of Michelin Tyre Company Ltd. to discuss the future of the Dundee car tyre plant, following confirmation of Michelin’s intention to close the plant by 2020.
An analyst report published by Jefferies International Limited has stated that the closure of Michelin’s Dundee plant “supports [the company’s] intent to accelerate cost savings during 2019-20.” Presenting its nine-month 2018 results in October, Michelin warned that demand had deflated in the car and truck markets and it was revising down its guidance; subsequently Michelin shares fell to a seven-year low.
Two months after the tyre manufacturer began a restructuring programme at its factory in Dundee, Michelin is set to close the plant at the cost of about 850 jobs. Michelin, which has run the Dundee site since 1971, says it plans to leave the city by 2020.
Yokohama Rubber’s Mississippi tyre factory has fired 29 employees for not meeting job requirements.
Local media has reported that employees at the plant in West Point were fired for using fake worker certifications. The workers obtained fraudulent certification documents from a job-training program that companies use to determine the aptitude of potential hires.
A maximum of 125 jobs will be cut at Sensata’s factory in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. Company representatives clarified their plans in response to earlier reports suggesting as many as 275 jobs were at risk. The latest information is that, while 275 employees have been told that their positions are “at risk”, the number of job losses will be capped at 125. A company spokesperson confirmed this in a statement in answer to Tyres & Accessories questions on the matter:
Michelin has announced plans to significantly reorganise globally, resulting in significant job losses in France and the US most of which will be covered by natural attrition.
In the United States 450 jobs in central functions are to be cut between 2018 and 2021. According to Michelin, 1,500 employees would actually leave the company in the same period, suggesting a large majority will result from natural attrition and retirement.
In what it calls a “series of decisions that adapt its industrial and service activities in Clermont-Ferrand,” French tyre maker Michelin has announced the closure of a retreading facility at its headquarters site and a further 164 job cuts in its Engineering operation. At the same time, the company has outlined plans to invest €90 million into projects at three Clermont-Ferrand locations.
Ford is aiming to saving US$200 million a year by reducing the number of sales marketing and administration jobs its supports in Europe. To achieve this Ford will offer a voluntary redundancy scheme to the 10,300 salaried workers it employs in Europe, according to Reuters. The deal is likely to include severance pay and early […]
Michelin Tyre Plc is consulting on the closure of its Ballymena truck tyre factory at the same time as investing in the expansion of its Dundee car tyre and Stoke-on-Trent retreading sites. The Ballymena factory closure plans suggest the site will be run-down between now and a mid-2018 closure point. The Ballymena factory currently employs 860 people and Michelin says it is “committed to supporting those employees during consultation and in the forthcoming months”.
JCB has announced plans to axe over 400 jobs following a “dramatic” slow-down in world markets. The firm reports that the equipment market in Brazil, Russia, China and India was down 43 per cent compared with the same period in 2014.
The the economic situation in Russia and the CIS countries has led to a downgrade in Nokian Tyres’ 2015 outlook. The Finnish tyre maker says sales of passenger car tyres have continued to decline in this region, and those tyres being purchased within the Russian market are increasingly lower B or C segment brand products. The company’s own sales in Russia were down 39.1 per cent year-on-year during the first half of 2015.
On 30 of April, well known Car Supermarket Carcraft has called in the administrators. A sale process had been going on since February 2015, but no buyer could be found. Carcraft has therefore ceased trading and all 500 employees have been made redundant.
Headquartered in Rochdale, Carcraft is the UK’s seventh largest second hand dealership chain with an annual turnover of £120 million, 500+ employees across 10 sites nationwide. The group sells over 12,000 used vehicles per annum at an average price of £9,000 per vehicle.
Bulgarian-based car tyre manufacturer Vidachim has reduced the scale of planned staff cuts from 314 to 150. The new plans were announced on Monday 16 March 2015 after a meeting of Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova with workers and senior executives of the plant. However, it is not clear how long these measures can delay further […]
JCB has announced plans to cut up to 150 jobs. The job losses have been blamed on a slowdown in orders following unrest in Russia, Ukraine and Syria. According to various local news sources, most of the jobs will be lost at the firm’s Staffordshire factories in Rocester and Cheadle.
JCB will now embark on a 45-day consultation with staff at the beginning of November. Any following job cuts are set to take place in the middle of December. The firm has not ruled out making compulsory redundancies.
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