Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant is celebrating a manufacturing milestone this week as the 100,000th Astra Sports Tourer leaves the production line in Cheshire.
2,100 people are employed at the plant, which is the only General Motors facility producing the Sports Tourer model. 92.5% of the cars built are exported from Ellesmere Port to Europe, as well as countries including Chile, Israel and South Africa. Within the first nine months of production, Vauxhall had also sold 6,316 Sports Tourers to buyers in the UK.
47 jobs per hour are currently being achieved on the production line, and the plant itself has strong environmental credentials. It was the first automotive manufacturing operation to receive ISO14001 certification (then BS 7750) in 1995 and has received numerous environmental awards.
The 100,000th car was driven off the line by Ellesmere Port’s longest serving employee, John Cooper. He joined the plant in 1967, just five years after the facility started production.
You can find out more about UK automotive manufacturing by downloading SMMT Motor Industry Facts 2011.
