THREE SHIFT PRODUCTION FOR NEW VAUXHALL VIVARO AT LUTON VAN PLANT

LUTON: Nick Reilly, Chairman and Managing Director of Vauxhall Motors Ltd., and Chairman of IBC Vehicles, today (May 1 2001), announced the official start of three shift production for the new Vivaro van at the Luton IBC van plant.

"This is an important landmark for the plant, and shows the commitment to van production here in Luton which was part of our long-term manufacturing plan," said Mr Reilly.

"This will bring the manufacturing operation up to full capacity of 86,000 vans a year for sale across Europe. Employment at the plant has risen to nearly 2,800 with the addition of about 1,000 employees from the Vectra car plant. Additional jobs have also been created at local suppliers. The company has invested in excess of 175,000 hours of training to bring the new van to full production," he continued.

"The integration of employees from the Vauxhall car plant has worked extremely well. It is to the credit of employees from both sites that this has been a success and we are now in the position where our employees are truly motivated about the prospects of producing what will be a world-class product built to the highest passenger car standards," said Peter Thom, Plant Director of IBC.

The production of the existing Vauxhall Frontera recreational vehicle will begin in earnest again over the next few weeks, after a short break following the move of the final production line for the Frontera to one area of the car production site. In all other production areas - including the press, body and paint shops - the Frontera is built alongside the new Vivaro van.

New Vivaro van for Europe result of GM and Renault co-operation
The new Vivaro van range has been developed in conjunction with Renault as part of an agreement with General Motors Europe signed in 1996. This agreement has already strengthened the positions of both companies in the European medium and heavy van market.

The new van, which has a weight range of 2.5 to 2.8 tonnes gross vehicle weight, will reinforce GM's commitment to the whole van market across Europe. It will be sold in the UK as the Vauxhall Vivaro and on the Continent as the Opel Vivaro.