It looks like no matter what the outcome of the entire Brexit saga, BMW is determined to pause its Oxford production on October 31st and November 1st. At least that’s what the company said to The Guardian recently, when a BMW’s CFO was asked about the plans it has for the worst-case scenario. Apparently, no matter what kind of deal (or no-deal at all) is reached, they will do take two days off to set up the security of the logistics involved.
“The first concrete measures we have agreed with suppliers is (that) we will not be producing on October 31st and November 1st,” BMW’s chief finance officer Nicolas Peter told reporters at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Ideally, the gap would’ve been considered simply a holiday break but since all the employees already used up their holiday allowance in April, when BMW carried out a planned shutdown of the same plant for a Month, that’s no longer possible.
Back then, the forced holiday was planned as the UK was actually supposed to leave the EU on March 29. Since that didn’t happen, things got a bit more complicated along the line. “We are not capable of [having] a second holiday period in 2019 so this could have a financial impact on our colleagues working in Oxford,” Peter told the Financial Times at the Frankfurt motor show. However, this may just be the tip of the iceberg.
The same CFO said that if there will be no deal signed between the two parties, allowing certain levies for the automotive industry, BMW might actually have to close shop in Oxford and move its production elsewhere, most likely in the Netherlands. This would translate into about 4,500 workers losing their jobs and possibly the closing of the Oxford plant altogether, putting an end to almost 100 years of automotive manufacturing at this location.
