24 Jan 2009

Bentley announces production freeze

7:53 am on 24 January 2009

Bentley is to suspend production for up to seven weeks because of falling demand.

The British luxury carmaker is the latest auto company to announce cuts because of the credit crunch.

Bentley, which is owned by Volkswagen, employs 3600 staff. Production has been under a series of restrictions since last October.

The company said on Friday that employees will still be paid during the shutdown, which will run from March to May, allowing current orders to be built first.

Other carmakers including Jaguar and Nissan have announced major job cuts in Britain in recent weeks, while Honda is closing a factory in England, for four months.

New car sales in Britain dropped more than 20% in December.