No extended summer shutdown, says Jaguar

Jaguar has denied claims that it's closing its factories for an extended summer break due to the downturn in the car market.

A report in the Sunday Times said that bosses were drawing up plans to close its plants over the summer and reduce its workforce just days after the company had launched its flagship XJ model at a star-studded party in London.

However, Jaguar said that it was reducing the traditional summer shutdown in order to prepare for the production of new Jaguar and Land Rover models.

'The report is essentially untrue,' said a spokesman. 'The summer shutdown will start at the end of next week. Traditionally, the summer shutdown is for three weeks.

'We've recently launched new products for both Jaguar and Land Rover and in fact we've only just reinstated the second shift at the factory in Solihull for the 2010 Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Land Rover Discovery models.'

Green shoots: are car makers over the worst of the recession?
One swallow doesn't make a summer, but there has been good news recently about car making in the UK.

• Honda had closed its factory at Swindon where it builds the CR-V and Civic for four months as the recession took hold. Production re-started last month as the factory gears up to make the 2010 Honda Jazz later on this summer.

• Sports car maker Caterham announced last week that it was recruiting extra staff to cope with increased demand for its cars.

• Rolls-Royce announced in May that it was increasing its workforce by 50% to support the production of its new Ghost model, which goes on sale in 2010.

• Nissan employed an extra 100 workers in June to cope with the increased demand generated by the Government's scrappage scheme.