Car maker Jaguar, owned by Tata Motors, said on Jan. 19, it had stopped production at a central England car factory in response to tumbling demand.
Jaguar, which last week slashed 450 jobs in a bid to reduce costs, began a two-week stoppage in production on Jan. 19. "Two weeks of non-production time start today, but employees will still be attending the plant for training," a spokesman said.
The stoppage will also allow changes to be made to the production line to allow the production of new models, he added.
The plant in Castle Bromwich, Birmingham, employs 2,000 staff and assembles Jaguar XF, XJ and XK models. It only restarted production last week after an extended break for the Christmas and New Year holiday period.
Tata Motors completed its $2.3 billion acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford in June.
Britain's auto industry has been hammered by the international economic downturn, with Nissan axing 1,200 British jobs earlier this month owing to a sales slump.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009
