This week Vauxhall is celebrating the five millionth car to roll off the production line at its Ellesmere Port factory.
2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the Cheshire plant, which has a long history of car production. Vauxhall began building cars at Ellesmere Port in 1964, when the first Viva HA rolled off the line. The factory was responsible for all Viva models, the Chevette and has produced all six Astra models since 1982, resulting in an average of 100,000 cars being produced at the plant every year.
Today Ellesmere Port employs almost 1,800 staff and builds a new car every two minutes. The future is bright for the Ellesmere Port plant, as it is currently gearing up for the production of an all-new VauxhallAstra in 2015. As the lead producer of the new model, the plant will take on 300 new members of staff from next month as part of General Motors’ £140 million investment, securing production at the plant for the next decade.
This landmark follows an earlier announcement from Vauxhall that it will be creating an additional 250 new jobs at its Luton plant, in order to increase output of its Vivaro vans.
