TVR to stop UK production

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Blackpool factory to close
250 jobs go in at Blackpool plant
Production to go abroad, no location confirmed

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TVR is to stop making cars in the UK, with the loss of 250 jobs and ending 60 years of production at its Blackpool factory.

TVR will instead make its sport cars outside the UK – although no location has been confirmed. The firm had previously said it would move to new premises in the Lancashire town.

However, there has been speculation that TVR would cease to build cars in the UK since Russian Nikolai Smolenski bought the company in 2004. TVR temporarily shed between 70 and 150 workers in April, but claimed to have reinstated them in July.

Smolenski has repeatedly denied that TVR would be closing its UK operations. When he bought the company in 2004, he said that he wanted to double production by 2009, and make TVR "more British".

A spokesman for the Transport and General Workers Union said: 'This is a bitter blow for Blackpool and an iconic British sports car,'

'It is particularly hard to take in after everyone’s hopes had been raised just a few months ago when workers who had been laid off were taken back. The uncertainty and stress faced by the workforce has been tremendous.'