Timeline of Ford in Bridgend
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1980:
Production starts at Ford’s Bridgend plant after the car manufacturer signs an investment deal with the Welsh Development Agency.
Factory produces its one millionth engine
First RS Turbo engine built. Three millionth engine
1983: 1984: 1987:
built.
1988:
Announcement of £726m project for new generation of engines.
Production of V8 Jaguar engines starts. At the time Jaguar was a subsidiary of Ford.
Announcement of £240m project to bring production of engines for company’s luxury brands like Land Rover, which was then a subsidiary of Ford, to Bridgend.
Production line workers were among the first to drive the Focus RS powered by a two-litre Bridgend-built Duratec engine, the first of which came off the production line in August.
Production of V8 engines for Land Rover Discovery begins.
Further expansion leads to announcement of 200 new jobs; plant also on course to make 800,000 engines that year, the highest number since 1980.
£70m investment to produce new generation of low CO₂ emission engines.
£181m investment announced to produce new Dragon fuel-efficient engines from 2018. Welsh Government gives support of £14.6m.
Ford confirms initial investment in Dragon will now be £100m, safeguarding 550 jobs.
Jaguar Land Rover ends engine deal early, meaning production of the engines will cease in September 2020 instead of at the end of that year.
Employees working on the AJ assembly line – which makes the Jaguar AJ-V8 engine – are told to take a week off work due to the production line unexpectedly shutting down. Later, Ford said it was in talks with chemical company Ineos to build a new off-road vehicle at the plant.
1996: 2001: 2002: 2004: 2007: 2008: 2015: 2016: 2017: 2018: November 2018:
Staff said they were told there could be voluntary redundancies after Christmas. A weekly bulletin was sent to employees which said the US carmaker is planning on the basis that it will have too many staff by the middle of 2019.