BMW to recruit 1,000 staff across four plants

Trade union Unite welcomes 'Christmas present' for workers

Mini boost: Hundreds of new jobs will support the launch of the new Mini

BMW Group is to recruit for 1,000 new permanent positions across its four UK manufacturing plants.

Most of the jobs will be created at the German carmaker's Mini plant in Oxford. The group's pressings plant in Swindon, engine factory at Hams Hall near Birmingham, and Rolls-Royce plant in Goodwood, West Sussex will also take on new permanent staff.

Current agency workers will be given priority in the recruitment process, BMW said. The company added: “As a major UK employer, investor and exporter, this announcement underlines BMW Group’s further commitment to the UK as a strategically important production and sales location for the company.

“It comes as a result of a major £760 million investment programme from 2012 to 2015 to support the launch of the new Mini, a new generation of three-cylinder engines and the expansion of our business at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.”

The initial recruitment phase involves 700 jobs and will start in the new year, with the recruitment process for the remaining 300 contracts beginning in 2016.

BMW's latest spending programme brings the company’s total investment in the UK to £2 billion since 2001. It has seen a body shop built and equipped with 1,000 robots at the Oxford Mini plant, the debut of various pressings technologies at Swindon, and Hams Hall being equipped for a new generation of modular three-cylinder engines.

The recruitment drive was warmly welcomed by the Unite union, which described it as “a great Christmas present”.