Manganese Bronze Holdings, maker of the trademark London taxi cabs, has issued a profit warning and said job losses are likely as part of a restructuring of its loss-making British operations.
The company said in a statement: “”Overall, while group operating performance is expected to show year on year improvement, the outcome for the full year is expected to be a loss below current market expectations.”
It added that it is starting formal consultation with its workforce to examine ways of returning its UK operation to profitability. “The consultation will be wide ranging and will review all options including rationalisation of the current manufacturing operations which could result in a number of redundancies.”
Manganese said trading in the UK continued to be negatively impacted by the recession and that lower volumes with high discounts and marketing initiatives had resulted in continuing losses.
Its overall vehicle sales for the eight months to the end of August fell 9.1% to 1,207 vehicles but said that manufacturing break-even level continues to be approximately 2,000 vehicles a year and that UK sales are expected to remain below that level.
