Peugeot shuts shop at Ryton

PSA Peugeot Citroën has announced to staff and Trade Unions that it intends to cease activity at its Ryton manufacturing facility near Coventry in 2007. The move will affect 2,300 jobs.

The proposal, announced by Chief Executive Officer Jean Martin Folz, follows a study of the Group’s European industrial facilities during the first quarter of 2006. The Group said the study confirmed that the Ryton plant has high production and logistical costs, which mean that it is unable to justify the investment needed for the production of future vehicles after manufacture of the Peugeot 206 ceases there.

The Group said that these internal factors together with reduced demand and intense competition in Europe have led it to this move, having already reduced production at a number of other European sites at the end of 2005.

The proposal is that production at Ryton is brought to a close in two phases; in the first instance the factory will move from a double to a single shift in July 2006, and production will not continue beyond mid 2007.