Holden managed to almost completely hide the story of the beginning of the end of its manufacturing in Australia by burying it in a couple of other much larger events. The final Cruze rolled off the line on the same day as, (A) Ford shut down its factories and (B) the Bathurst 1000 weekend began.
The final Cruze, an SRI Z-Series hatch, was driven off the assembly line at 8.30 on Friday October 7th. It, and a final Cruze sedan were donated to Holden’s longtime charity partner, the Leukaemia Foundation, and raffled at its Light the Night event in Victoria Square.
Holden’s chief, Mark Bernhard paid tribute to Holden employees who had taken part in designing and building Australia’s locally-made small car, “Those who were involved in the Cruze project have a strong, and deserved, sense of pride at what was achieved in terms of project development, management, engineering, design and, of course, production.
The end of Holden Cruze production will see around 270 Holden employees leave during the remainder of October and into November, all on a voluntary basis. This is fewer than had been forecast in July, due to ongoing demand for the Commodore.
Every Holden worker has access to a suite of transition services and up to $3000 in approved training as part of Holden’s $15 million contribution to the federal government’s Growth Fund for specific support of manufacturing employees.
Of the approximately 450 employees who have left Holden in the last two years, 78 per cent have transitioned successfully to jobs, retirement or study with 67 per cent going into new jobs.
Beyond 2017, Holden will retain a significant presence in Australia for the long-term, including its sales and marketing operations, spare parts organisation, world-class design studios and an ongoing engineering department.
All-new Astra hatch is to replace Cruze from 1 December, 2016. We have been invited to the launch of that car prior to that date and will report all details.
