Peugeot Ryton Plant to close
Peugeot today announced the closure of their Ryton plant with the loss of 2,300 jobs. The plant produces one model, the 206, which is due for replacement by the new 207. The 206 will continue in production at Peugeots factory north of Paris.
The company blamed the plant closure on the high cost of producing cars in the UK compared to newer more efficient plants in Eastern Europe and the rest of the world. The Ryton plant is also small compared to the giant factory in Argentina, and only capable of producing one model of car. This, the company said, meant that any investment in upgrading the plant was not cost effective.
The closure will happen in two stages with one shift stopping in July 2006, the second in mid 2007.
Ryton has turned out over 5,000,000 cars in the past seven years and the 206 is expected to continue to sell well in developing markets for many years to come, however the company is finding the current market hard with it's turnover for last year falling from 2.5 billion euros to £2 billion euros while profit has fallen from 1.65 to 1 billion euros.
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