Aston Martin to cut 500 jobs as business reset continues
Luxury sports car maker Aston Martin has today announced it will cut 500 jobs as the iconic brand continues with its business-wide reset.
The firm said the measures were being taken to bring its cost base in line with expected lower levels of car production.
The cuts, which cover nearly a fifth of Aston Martin’s 2,600 strong workforce, come after it was announced chief executive Andy Palmer would be replaced by Mercedes executive Tobias Moers.
“The measures announced today will right-size the organisational structure and bring the cost base into line with reduced sports car production levels, consistent with restoring profitability,” it said.
Aston Martin added that the restructuring is expected to deliver total annual savings of about £38m.
Union Unite urged the car maker to reconsider the number of losses, warning that most of them would fall on Aston Martin’s plant at Gaydon in Warwickshire, which employs about 1,600 people.
Regional officer Tim Parker described the plan as “repugnant” and blamed it on the company’s “dire financial situation”.
He said: “At the same time as Aston Martin has been making use of the taxpayer-funded job retention scheme to furlough the majority of the workforce, it is now planning to throw a third of the Gaydon workforce onto the scrapheap – we think that is repugnant”.
He also called on the government to provide financial support for the company in order to avoid the lay-offs.
Since going public in October 2018, Aston Martin has seen its share price collapse, prompting Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll to take a 25 per cent stake in the firm earlier this year.
After leading the £536m funding round, Stroll has now become the firm’s executive chairman.
However, in his first set of results since taking charge, Aston Martin fell to a loss of over £100m due to the coronavirus crisis.
Shortly afterwards, finance chief Mark Wilson stepped down as part of a wide-ranging managerial shake-up.