Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has brought in the planned 24 hour shifts to meet strong international demand for the Range Rover Evoque.
JLR announced that it would introduce the extra night shifts in March this year, and as of today they are in full effect.
The company hired 1,000 extra production operators, supervisors and engineers to cope with the extra workload, many of them from other automotive companies that were forced to shed staff over the past year.
The new employees will work on both the Evoque and the updated version of the Land Rover Freelander model, relieving current workers of their workloads.
The Evoque model has experienced huge international interest, with over 88,000 vehicles sold in 170 markets around the world.
Halewood’s operations director, Richard Else said: “Many [of our new staff] have worked a number of trial night shifts during July, to ensure we get off to a great start today.”
“Moving production to three shifts and working 24 hours a day will allow us to significantly reduce the time a customer has to wait for their new Range Rover Evoque,” Mr Else added.
Tata Motors, the Indian owner of the UK-based firm expressed its excitement over the demand, and praised its Halewood workforce for stepping up to cope with extra production requirements.
