JCB sees UK downturn lasting until 2009

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All eleven of JCB's factories in the UK will be hit after the plant giant said it was cutting over eight per cent of its domestic workforce.

The firm has eight plants dotted across Sttafordshire, plus two more in Wrexham. It also has a diesel engine plant at Foston in Derbyshire.

A spokesman said the global downturn and rising raw material costs meant demand for its machines was on the wane.

Around 500 out of its 5,900 UK staff were facing the chop with a consultation period beginning immediately.

JCB is expected to put some of its staff on a 30 day consultation with others on a 90 day period. The plant giant begins its annual three week shutdown next Friday and the first of the redundancies are expected to be made at the end of August.

Problems in worldwide housing markets have meant it had cut its forecast production schedule for the remainder of this year by one fifth. Group chief executive Matthew Taylor said he did not expect to see a recovery until late 2009 at the earliest.

And the firm said it had stopped overtime at its three plants India where it employs around 2,000 people at sites just outside New Delhi and Pune.

The spokesman said the market in the country was cooling as the government over there attempts to put the brakes on inflation.

He said: "It remains to be seen over the next few months how it will behave but it's not the same market. It was growing by approximately 50 per centand now it's in single figures."

JCB's total global workforce stands at more than 9,000.