History of the Bridgend engine plant:
As 1,100 jobs are feared to be at risk at Ford’s engine factory in Bridgend, business reporter Chris Pyke looks at the history of the plant and its importance to the town...
THE Ford production plant has been based in Bridgend for more than 35 years.
While production began at Ford Bridgend in 1980, it was three years after the car manufacturer signed an investment deal with the Welsh Development Agency.
The Bridgend Engine Plant currently employs 1,760 members of staff, but the fears for the future of the site and its staff have been steadily increasing.
Those fears yesterday culminated in reports the car giant has drawn up a plan to cut the workforce to around 600 by 2021.
Bridgend’s first engine was the CVH, which powered a host of iconic Ford cars including the Fiesta, the MK2 Escort and the Ford Orion between 1980 and 2004. And it wasn’t just Ford that used the engines produced at Bridgend. Boutique carmaker Morgan was another firm to benefit from engines built at the plant.
The Volvo SI6 engine was built in Bridgend from 2006 and was used in Volvos until 2014, and Land Rover also made use of it in the Freelander.
In 2008 the plant received a £70m investment, with £13.4m in support from the Welsh Government.
Rhodri Morgan, then First Minister, said: “The factory was opened 28 years ago amid the doom and gloom of the early 1980s. This investment probably means Ford will be making engines here for another 28 years.”
In 2010, Ford announced it would produce the new lightweight, compact and ultra-efficient 1.6-litre “EcoBoost’” engines at Bridgend. It would go on to be used in the firm’s modern car range.
In 2013 a £24m investment – with £12m in non-repayable finance from the Welsh Government – ensured production of the fuel-efficient 1.5-litre EcoBoost petrol engine at the plant.
Products from Bridgend were now powering the Ford Fiesta, B-MAX, Focus, C-MAX, Kuga and Mondeo.
In 2015 Volvo stopped its production at the plant and the Tata Motorsowned brand Jaguar Land Rover will end its engine production at the site in 2018.
The production of the Ford Sigma engine is to stop in 2019-20. It was this that led the union Unite to express “grave concerns” for the future of the plant last September. At the time, Ford announced it was going to halve the plant’s proposed production of the new Dragon engine, due to begin in 2018, and “significantly reduce” planned investment in the site.
Ford confirmed that instead of an investment of £181m to produce the family of all-new, technologically advanced, fuel efficient petrol engines, the initial investment would now be £100m with a workforce requirement of 550 and not 750 people.
With production of the two engines set to end by 2020 and investment in the new Dragon engine reduced, the plant was plunged into uncertainty.
In September last year Unite Wales secretary Andy Richards said the halving of the Dragon production and other pre-planned reductions placed the plant in a “very dangerous situation”.
Unite’s Bryan Godsell described how workers had been gripped by uncertainty: “The real fear is that four years down the line what happens then? Because the programme with Jaguar Land Rover and the Ford Sigma engine stops around 2019-20.”
Last month a Ford spokeswoman said: “Ford announced in September that it was taking the option to invest an initial £100m of an approved investment to build a family of all-new, technologically advanced petrol engines at Bridgend from late 2018.
“In addition, Ford once again reiterated that the anticipated production volume of engines from Bridgend remains healthy in the upcoming years, with associated labour requirements expected to be similar to today’s level.
“Bridgend must fulfil its commitment in terms of delivery, quality and cost of the products it manufactures and – just as in the case for every Ford plant around the world – winning new product contracts depends on the plant’s efficiency and global competitiveness.”
The Dragon production requires a workforce commitment of around 550 people, so staff have become increasingly anxious over what will become of the other 1,300 jobs at the site.
Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, gave a March 1 deadline to Ford for reassurances for the future of the plant following meetings with the company’s Europe CEO Jim Farley.
At the start of February Mr McCluskey said: “I am delighted to say that this was a very positive, wide-ranging meeting, in which Mr Farley shared with us the company’s future plans but also their concerns about the value of sterling and the type of Brexit currently being considered, which would see this industry lose its access to the European single market.
“Our automotive industry is world class and Ford is a big part of this. It was good to hear Ford Europe’s chief executive personally express his thanks for the dedication and loyalty of the UK workforce and that the company wants to work with us on jobs and investment planning for the future.
“On the Bridgend plant, talks are ongoing and I will be visiting the plant in the coming weeks to speak to the shop stewards about the direction we need to travel to secure jobs.
“Given the turbulence of current times, however, we fully share Mr Farley’s view that the sector must retain access to the single market on a tarifffree basis.”
It was at this time the shop stewards’ bulletin sent out to staff in Bridgend stated Ford bosses had outlined a planned $1.5bn investment for other UK plants over the next five years, but had not mentioned Bridgend. It was a foretaste of the bitter news that has since hit the plant.