SPECIALS

NEDCAR HISTORY

• 1968: Queen Juliana opens the car factory in Born and in these days the plant is producing cars for DAF.




• 1975: Volvo takes over a big amount of shares and from that moment the plant is producing beside DAF`s also Volvo`s (300 series and later 400 series).



• 1991: Volvo and Mitsubishi are now in a joint venture, both companies and the dutch state each have now 33% of the company.
• Begin 1992: Volvo Car B.V. as the plant was called undergoes a change in name, the new name is from now NedCar and at the highlight of the company there are working around 9000 people.
• 1992-1994: The plant is completely rearranged in order to produce Mitsubishi's and Volvo's, begin 1994 all various activities are joined in the plant and by the end of the year the first test vehicles are being made.
• 1992-1998: The organization is being retrenched and reduced. Two plans leads to more than 4000 people lose their job, this is the beginning of concentrating all activities in Born, their headquarter in Helmond is being closed only the productdevelopment stays intact there.
• December 1995: The rearranged plant is officialy opened by Queen Beatrix and starts with production, Mitsubishi Carisma is the first to be produced there.



• July 1998: Start with the production of the Mitsubishi Space-Star.



• 1998: Car number 3.000.000 rolls out of the plant.
• 1999: Productionrecord!!!!!! during this year 262.196 cars have been produced at the plant and NedCar and the Union signed a covenant which stated that in case of a dip personnel will work less hours, with this NedCar can keep up with fluctuations in the market.
• February 1999: Dutch State is no longer a shareholder so Mitsubishi and Volvo each own 50%, end of february it is announced that Ford want to take over Volvo`s people`s division.
• Spring 2000: During the high demand in the market NEdCar puts adds for temporal workers.
• March 2001: Mitsubishi is by now 100% owner of NedCar.
• 2004: NedCar starts with the production of Smarts.



• March 2004: Start of the production of the Mitsubishi Colt`s.



• May 2004: After more then 30years the end is there when it comes to producing Volvo`s (V40 and S40 models are the last to be producded there).



• July 2004: NedCar hires 700 temporal workers to work on the Smart Forfour and Mitsubishi Colt.
• 2004-2005: NedCar previous step in hiring extra personnel is working against the company due to competition and this forces them to take a step back resulting in only 2 work shifts.
• October 2004: An agreement between management and labor parties on the dismantling of the temporary staff that was hired. As of October, the file of nine hundred temporary employees are phased out. Permanent employees get job security for 2004 and 2005.
• December 2004: The reorganization makes thirty percent of the jobs disappear, It is about 140 office workers. According to the management, the organization leaner NedCar to be as competitive as possible.
• July 2005: The social partners agreed that the beginning of 2006 dismissal is requested for 368 production workers. In addition, three hundred production workers were assinged to a group that could be temporarily assigned to other companies. It is a temporary solution to the structural overcrowding due to the disappointing volume developments.
• March 2005: The annual production volume is adjusted downwards and this happens in April and May again, they assume an annual production of 115,000 cars.
• March 2006: Publication of the cessation of production of the Smart Forfour, because the volume of production therefore drops significantly, the company restructures.
• April 2006: After consultation and a one-day strike there is an agreement between NedCar and the unions. In 2006 there will be no forced redundancies. Individual employment contracts are terminated by end March 2007.
• July 2006: End of production of the Smart Forfour, in the plant in Born wthey only produce Mistubishi Colts from now on.
• January 2007: The works council approves proposals of the Executive Board on adjustment of the length of service. They also set flex shifts, allowing the production speed to modify very quickly to the demand. Also, a social plan for 2012 is set.
• Spring 2007: The reorganization is completed. More than 1200 employees have taken advantage of the voluntary redundancy scheme yet still 74 redundancies were necessary.
• September 2007: NedCar announced that they will produce the Mitsubishi Outlander.



• December 2008: NedCar halves the production of the Outlander due to consumers which make less large expenditure and beside that there is more demand in the automotive industry for small, fuel-efficient models
• January 2009: NedCar receive from the Ministry of Social Affairs a permission for shorter working hours for the duration of six weeks.
• March 2009: Jobs are disappearing: 220 annual contracts are not renewed.
• December 2011: Mitsubishi announced that they will ot let the plant in Born produce the successor to the Colt; Hundreds of workers stopped working to enforce clarification of their future.
• February 2012: Mitsubishi announced the factory in Born to be closed next year.

Back to News