Nissan signs British car factory deal

Press, 3 February 1984, Page 10

Nissan signs British car factory deal

NZPA-Reuter London The Japanese car maker, Nissan, has signed an agreement to open a factory in Britain, a move which may enable it to sell more cars throughout the European Community. The deal was signed by Nissan’s president, Mr Takashi Ishihara, and Britain’s Secretary for Trade and Industry, Mr Norman Tebbit, ending years of uncertainty over a proposal first raised in early 1981. The car plant will be the first in the Community exclusively owned by a Japanese firm and it may give Nissan greater access to markets such as France and

Italy, where imports from Japan are tightly restricted. The project has been denounced by some European car firms as a Trojan Horse concealing increased car imports. Details of the agreement were not immediately released, but industry sources in Japan said Nissan scaled down its original plans considerably after pressure from trade unions at home.

In 1981, Nissan envisaged a huge plant employing 5000 people and turning out 200,000 cars a year but now, the sources said, the plan was for an initial output of 20,000 or 30,000 cars a year with a work force of just 1000.

The new plant will be

built in one of Britain’s unemployment black spots, although the site has not yet been chosen. Three regions, two in north-east England and one in South Wales, are competing for it. Japanese car sales to Britain are limited by informal agreement to about 11 per cent of. the market, Nissan taking the biggest slice. It sold more than 100,000 cars in Britain last year.

Nissan’s other main market in the European Community is West Germany. Another Japanese firm, Honda, has a joint venture with the State-owned British Leyland to make a small saloon car which is sold by both partners.