There were a few shining lights in car production last year, despite the economic doom and gloom. Ferrari did well (but we doubt for long), Audi kept growing, Fiat posted record profits and Rolls Royce had a record year. And one company that managed to grow sales was Mini (although an analysis of their sale show they were buoyed by a big rise in the US which hid the falling sales levels in the rest of the world), but now Mini are having problems.
BMW (the owner of Mini) has today announced that they will be shedding 850 jobs, and cutting production from 7 days and three shifts to five days and two shifts. The job losses amount to almost 20% of the UK workforce but, in a controversial move, BMW has got rid of agency staff as they have no rights on redundancy or notice period. The unions are not amused.
The Mini Cooper S - one of the range of cars produced by Mini, which has just shed 20% of its workforce
It comes to something when a company like Mini are shedding jobs, which just proves the point that, despite the countless billions pumped in to the banking system in the UK and around the world, banks are just not freeing up credit. Cars like the Mini should be flooding out of the showrooms when things are tight. The Mini is a classless car, well-built and, in many of its iterations, very frugal. Just the sort of car people want when things are tight. But if even Mini are struggling, what hope the rest?
Let’s hope that such a big sign that companies who should definitely not be in trouble are will be enough to shake central governments around the world in to calling the shots with the banks that we, the taxpayer, now effectively own, and get money moving again. In principal I’m very anti Government involvement in businesses of any sort, but these are exceptional times. It needs to be done.
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