Job losses in the UK car industry could increase
The chief executive of Bentley Motors, Adrian Hallmark, has told the Financial Times that the company did everything it could to avoid job cuts before confirming in early June that 1,000 people out of a total workforce of 4,200 may lose their jobs.
This came on the back of announcements of 500 job cuts at Aston Martin (20% of its total workforce) and of 1,200 at supercar manufacturer McLaren, which employs a total of 4,000 people.
Mr Hallmark (pictured) explained that a seven-week shutdown and gradual reopening imposed by covid-19 restrictions had already cost Bentley an estimated 25% of its turnover for the year. With only half of the year now remaining, he said he thought it would be very difficult for the company to catch up again and that he was not optimistic about making “any reasonable profit” in 2020.
But he warned that things in the high-end automotive sector could become even worse. He said that a second wave of covid-19 would probably lead to further cuts and he warned that an “uncontrolled” exit from the European Union for the UK, which would be the result of a failure for the two parties to negotiate a trade agreement by the end of this year, would compound what he called “the coronavirus disaster”.
