SEPTEMBER 17, 2004

Jaguar to close Brown's Lane factory

The Ford Motor Company will announce today that it is to close its Browns Lane plant in Coventry, which employs 2,000 workers and builds the XK sports coupe and XJ luxury saloon. The move is aimed at stemming losses at Jaguar and will come as a painful blow to one of Britain's proudest brands. Under British law, Ford is required to give union officials advance notice of plans to close a factory. The law, which kicks in when 100 or more workers are involved, provides for a 90-day consultation period, during which affected workers may draft and submit a rescue plan.

At a time like this, it is not likely that Ford will continue to spend large sums of money on a Jaguar-branded F1 team but this does not mean that the company will abandon all of its F1 activity.

According to reports in America Ford will end the year with a ninth consecutive year of dropping market share. The company is now down to 16.6% of the market, although it remains the nation's best-selling automotive brand. Ten years ago Ford had a market of nearly 22%.