500 jobs go from Holden Australia and Mike Devereux, the managing director has cited the decline in sales for the Holden Cruze as the main reason behind the job losses.

There are a bunch of other factors that have contributed, which include the continued strength of the Australian dollar, the open competitiveness of the market and governments manipulating their currencies to protect their manufacturing industries.

All this adds up to difficult times ahead for the Australian car industry. He reinforced that the reasons behind the decision to slash the 500 jobs are neither things that Holden’s employees have any control over, nor things that the leadership team can control and if fact anyone manufacturing in Australia can control.

He went on to say that what he has to do as the managing director is make sure that Holden has an efficient and effective operation with viable products coming out of the plant. Price competition in the small car market in Australia has been the biggest challenge in the last 12 months. Holden is the only company manufacturing a small car in Australia.

Sales of the Holden Cruze are down 30.5% up until April 2013. Holden has this month restructured a facelift range of hatchback and sedan models with lower pricing to attract back sales volumes.

April 2013