LDV Van Producers Could Be Saved By Government
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The government has kept the van producers LDV waiting whilst it deliberates on whether to give a £5million bridging loan that would then mean external investors could buy into the company and hundreds of jobs could potentially be saved.
Although LDV and Citroen van leasing have been on the up recently, production at LDV has been put on hold since December last year as a result of reduced demand in the new van market. Staff there have also agreed to a pay reduction of 10% recently and have even cur their week to 3-day work in efforts to bring costs under control at the site. The originally request to the government from LDV was for £30m to keep production stable. This figure was turned away but since some rethinking on LDV’s part as reduced request has been put forwards.
If the loan is given then it would help secure around 850 workers at LDV and also 6,000 more people who are affected in the supply chain. A number of investors from overseas are apparently looking to put money into the company if the government take action. These include one of the bidders who previously failed to secure Jaguar Land Rover, but also Mahindra and Mahindra, an Indian group who were in the running to purchase JLR and also a van leasing company a year ago but was eventually beaten by rival Asian conglomerate Tata.
LDV’s new green ‘eco’ concept van is among the plans and accounts that they were asked to submit to the government. The government will be scrupulous in their examining of the details but those at the top of LDV are still optimistic. Erik Eberhardson, the chairman of LDV’s Russian owner Gaz, has already stated he is convinced the firm can be saved and a spokesman for LDV recently announced “This isn’t dead in the water. BERR has agreed to investigate all options, and the MBO team believe they have the best plan.”
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