AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch luxury carmaker Spyker Cars, which is buying Swedish carmaker Saab from General Motors, started production at a plant in central England on Tuesday.
Spyker, which produces several dozen handmade sports cars a year, has switched the assembly of its new Aileron model from Zeewolde in the Netherlands to a plant in Coventry, run by its supplier CPP Manufacturing.
The move by the loss-making company is part of Spyker's strategy to scale up production and reduce manufacturing costs. Production capacity can reach five cars a week in one shift at the Coventry plant, the firm said in a statement.
"More than half our components are sourced from the UK, so moving here will bring us considerable efficiency savings," Spyker's Chief Executive Victor Muller said in a statement.
Spyker, which saved Sweden's loss-making Saab from closure with an eleventh-hour deal with GM in January, said CPP Manufacturing planned to increase staff at the plant to about 150 by adding 40 jobs.
In November, the firm said the move would lead to the loss of 45 jobs in the Netherlands.
"Against a general backdrop of decline in UK car manufacture in recent years, today provides very positive news not just for CPP but importantly for Coventry," CPP managing director Brendan O'Toole said in a statement.
Coventry was once home to Jaguar car production at its historic Browns Lane factory until it moved to nearby Castle Bromwich in 2005.
French car maker Peugeot also had a car plant based in Ryton, near Coventry, which shut in 2007, leading to the loss of 2,300 jobs.
(Reporting by Catherine Hornby, editing by Will Waterman)
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