The loss of 900 jobs at Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant so soon after the announcement of the decision to close Peugeot's Ryton plant has focused attention once again on the health of British carmaking. But Professor Garel Rhys of Cardiff Business School doesn't believe that Ellesmere Port has to share Ryton's fate. Both factories date from the 1960s and are outlying operations of predominantly mainland European companies producing cars that are also built at other West European plants. But, while Ryton is building an eight-year-old model, Ellesmere Port is producing an Astra that's just over two years old.
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