The success of Nissan’s new Qashqai crossover – launched in Europe and Japan last year, and headed for Australia, has already prompted the opening of a second assembly line in Japan to build 24,000 units a year for that market. Now, Nissan’s plant here in the UK is planning a third shift, creating 800 new jobs, to meet demand elsewhere.
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Recruitment is about to begin for the new workers, Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK said in a statement on Thursday, adding that over 130,000 Quahqais have been sold in Europe alone since launch last March.
Its plant at Sunderland in north-east England also builds the Micra hatchback, is the sole global source for the Micra CC coupe/convertible and also makes the Note small MPV. It built a record 353,000 units last year, making it both the UK’s largest car producer and exporter.
Nissan had previously boosted Qashqai production at Sunderland by 20% as early as last June to help meet the demand.
Nissan said orders remain above forecast and it is sitting on a customer order bank of 60,000 units. The need for a third shift has seen the Sunderland plant launch one of its largest ever recruitment campaigns, Nissan said.
By December, 800 additional manufacturing staff will have been recruited. Of these, 400 will be permanent positions, with the remainder temporary contracts.
In addition, all of the Sunderland plant’s current temporary manufacturing staff will be offered permanent positions with the company on a rolling basis throughout the year, subject to performance and sustained volume.
All these measures will allow Sunderland to implement a third ‘night-time’ shift on the Qasqai line.
Nissan Europe manufacturing & supply chain management head Trevor Mann said: “Currently on two shifts, we can produce 200,000 Qashqais per year. However, the car is proving so popular we now need to significantly increase our volume.
“Ultimately, how many we produce will be determined by the market, but we have identified the need for a third shift. This is a tremendously positive move by Nissan and represents a great vote of confidence both in the success of Qashqai, and in the Sunderland workforce who achieved a record production year in 2007.
“Today, this level of recruitment in the Western European car manufacturing sector is rare, and reflects the ongoing commitment Nissan has in its UK operation.”
In addition to recruitment directly at the plant, it is estimated that more than 400 new posts will be created throughout the local supply base to support the third shift.
Mann added: “Qashqai sits between the traditional hatchback and SUV, and therefore offers drivers something genuinely unique. I believe this is why it continues to out-perform sales targets across all our major European markets.
“Sunderland continues to work extremely hard to deliver customers’ cars as quickly as possible, but Qashqai’s popularity is now at a stage that a third shift has become a viable and sensible measure to significantly boost production for the European market.”
The UK government’s business minister Shriti Vadera said: “Nissan’s increase in production and the creation of more than 800 new jobs is good news for the north east, the economy and British manufacturing.
“The success of the British designed Qashqai and record production at the Sunderland plant last year shows that the UK remains a competitive location for the automotive industry.
“Across the UK, car production grew by 6% in 2007 and we are now making nearly twice as many cars as 25 years ago.”
The Qashqai was designed at Nissan Design Europe in Paddington, London, while technical development was undertaken at its technical centre in Cranfield, England.
