Holden has officially put a date on the death of the locally-produced 2016 Cruze. The compact sedan will cease production at the Holden Elizabeth assembly in October of 2016. The confirmation also housed the news of the 2016 Opel Astra K replacing the Cruze has the brand’s new global offering.
Holden Executive Director of Human Resources, Ashley Winnett, said the brand will do everything possible to support its people in the transition. The statement reads as follows:
Our number one priority is to support our people – this is a difficult time for all those in the Holden family. Every Holden worker has access to a suite of transition services and up to $3,000 in approved training; all part of Holden’s $15 million contribution to the Federal Government’s Growth Fund for specific support of our manufacturing and engineering employees. All of our people have counselling services available to them, as well as career counselling, training and job searching assistance. All Holden employees at Elizabeth are entitled to this transition support, both before and after they eventually leave the company.
Holden is giving our employees and suppliers as much advance notice as possible, and we have openly been discussing this move with our people since 2014. The world-class ‘Transition Centre’ we have established at the Elizabeth plant is open to both our people and employees of supplier companies. We will do everything in our power to allow our people to make considered choices and help them move onto their next opportunity.
Our people continue to do an amazing job on the production lines and in the offices of our Elizabeth factory. The team is currently building the best quality cars we have ever produced and our people’s dedication and professionalism is unwavering. They have much to be proud of.
Managing Director and Chairman of the Holden brand, Mark Bernhard, echoed the statement, reaffirming his personal commitment to the people of Holden in helping them transition to life after manufacturing, ending his statement saying “there is absolutely no change to our plan to build Commodore until the end of 2017.”
The incoming Opel Astra will be one of 24 new models to launch by 2020, sourced from North America and Europe. The brand stated warranties, servicing and parts will be available through the unchanged dealership network of 230 locations.
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