Industry takes Note as Nissan boosts in UK

Nissan has today begun production of the new Note supermini at its UK plant in Sunderland.

The Note will further boost production at the plant, which is already the UK’s biggest car manufacturing facility.

It has also created a total of 2,000 new jobs in the UK automotive industry, including 400 staff at Nissan’s workforce at Sunderland. In total Nissan is now responsible for more than 35,000 British jobs.

Nissan invested a further £125 million for production of the new Note, secured for the UK with a £9.3m grant from the UK Government’s Regional Growth Fund.

The official start of production was marked at a ceremony on Line 2 at the Sunderland Plant attended by John Martin, Nissan’s Senior Vice President for Manufacturing, Purchasing and Supply Chain Management in Europe, and the UK’s Minister of State for Business and Enterprise, Michael Fallon.

Nissan dealers across Europe have already taken more than 14,000 pre-orders for the Note since order books opened in July.

Martin describes the investment as a further endorsement of the Sunderland Plant; “which is now an international benchmark for productivity and quality as a result of the hard work and consistently high performance by the management and workforce.

“I would like to congratulate all of my colleagues at the plant and in our supply base on the launch of this new model, and once again thank the UK Government for their ongoing support for the automotive industry,” he adds.

The Sunderland plant and its supply chain is responsible not only for assembly of the Note but also its axle production, cylinder head casting, camshaft machining and engine assembly.