Nissan is to recruit 800 additional staff and implement a third production shift at its manufacturing plant in Sunderland in response to high demand for its Qashqai model.
Since its European launch in March 2007, sales of the Qashqai have reached 130,000 units. Last June Nissan boosted production at Sunderland by 20 per cent to help meet demand. Nissan is now starting a recruitment campaign to deal with above-forecast orders.
By December 2008, 800 additional manufacturing staff will be recruited. Of these, 400 will be permanent positions, with the remainder temporary contracts.
In addition, all of the Sunderland plant’s current temporary manufacturing staff will be offered permanent positions with the company on a rolling basis throughout the year, subject to performance and sustained volume. These measures will allow Sunderland to implement a third ‘night-time’ shift on the line responsible for Qashqai production.
The Qashqai was designed at Nissan Design Europe in Paddington, London, while technical development was undertaken at its technical centre in Cranfield.
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