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Good morning It is my pleasure to be here this morning and to share with you some of the accomplishments that general motors manufacturing, Ellesmere Port, has achieved over the past 12 months, as we continue our journey to become a world class manufacturing facility.

The general motors Ellesmere Port plant was established in 1962 and today we employ about 2200 employees. We have the capability to produce 43 jobs per hour and a 3 shift capacity of 190,000.

Our current product portfolio consists of the 5 door Astra and the Astravan.

Most importantly, as you maybe aware, Ellesmere Port was recently allocated the production of the next generation Astra. The announcement secures the future of the plant and we are now heavily engaged in the planning of the launch of the new vehicle.

This was great news for the community as well as the men and women of Ellesmere Port who have proven their dedication and hard work.

Not only was the continuous improvement in our performance a major factor in being allocated the new product but the support and working relationship that has been established with the nwda proved to be invaluable.

We worked with a broad group of regional and national agencies to support the case for investing in the next generation Astra at Ellesmere Port.

With the support of Norman Williams of the nwda, we also worked closely with the dti headed up by Ben Rimmington, who helped us craft a comprehensive support programme.

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Norman Williams and his team, which consisted of people from the Northwest Automotive Alliance, Cheshire County Council, Environlink Northwest, HM Treasury and dti supported the plant in various ways namely creating ideas on site restructuring and land use, energy reduction initiatives, lean training and logistics, workforce development, business rates and the list goes on.

The team, which at its peak involved 40 partners from 8 different organisations, worked long hours on developing the plan, a plan that was second to none. A plan that has recently made the shortlist for the 2007 Whitehall & Westminster world’s civil service awards. The awards are designed to showcase innovation and improvement. It also salutes the achievements of outstanding individuals and teams across the civil service.

The Vauxhall Ellesmere Port project team, which included members from BERR business relations, IDU, HM Treasury and NWDA are nominated for the operational delivery award.

This award recognises good practice where customer needs have been placed at the heart of the design and implementation of a project, as well as creating effective partnerships between civil servants and frontline delivery agents.

In conjunction with all this hard work, the plant has made tremendous progress against our aggressive business plan. Our overriding priority at Ellesmere Port is safety and I am pleased to say that in march this year, we achieved 10 million working hours without a significant injury resulting in a lost work day for any of our employees.

This is a first for any manufacturing facility in the UK. As a result of this outstanding accomplishment, the plant was recognized by the health and safety executive and they continue to view Ellesmere Port as a benchmark organisation in regards to safety. We will

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continue to work with the HSE to share our best practices with other manufacturing facilities throughout the UK.

I believe that one of the key factors in the achieving the excellent improvements we have seen at the plant is by enhancing our people involvement. We have worked in conjunction with the trade union and have improved our communication channels as well as our reward and recognition programmes to ensure that our employees feel valued, motivated and more importantly feel they are part of the solution to become a world class organisation.

In terms of quality, Ellesmere Port has reduced its warranty cost for the 5 door Astra by 13% over the past 12 months and continues to be the leader in Europe in new car buyer’s satisfaction. Our internal measures show 18% improvement in our product quality audit and a 47% reduction in our in process related defects.

Our responsiveness continues to improve with our assembly hours per vehicle improving by 10% since last year and our overall manufacturing cost has been reduced by 14% year over year, which is absolutely critical to improve our cost competitiveness not only here in the uk but Europe as well.

One of the most talked about topics in the motor industry today is the environment.

Between 2001 and 2006, the plant made an overall energy saving of 32%, an excellent result which you may have recently seen advertised on television.

This has been achieved by developing an active energy process, monitoring and targeting weekly energy usage in all areas and implementing continuous improvement measures wherever necessary

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We have reviewed our purchasing contracts, consumption control in our boiler house and improved shutdowns using automated systems. Once again. The importance of involving the shop floor has been paramount and employees are encouraged to submit energy saving ideas, for which they are financially rewarded so, where does this leave us in terms of our 2007 year to date

Energy reduction? We have seen a 12% reduction in electricity use, 19% drop in boiler gas and 30% reduction in factory gas. Water usage has also fallen by a huge 34%, due to improvements in our paint shop. The plant has been recognised by various bodies for these outstanding achievements. We were the first motor manufacturer to achieve the energy efficiency accreditation scheme industry award, which recognises reduction in energy and we have also been nominated for the eon energy award for the best performing newly accredited company. In addition, we have recently received the green organisation’s 3 star status, the highest entry level.

In 2006 our waste recycling rate was 49% (excluding scrap metal). I am pleased to say that today we are now achieving an 87% recycling rate. We have also reduced our waste going to landfill by 31% from 2006. And our total recycling rate today (including scrap metal) is over 98%.

Looking to the future, the plant is now looking at more sustainable methods of energy supply. For example, we are working with other local manufacturer’s to share heat and electricity, produced from their facility, and i am pleased to say that the plant is currently in its 12th consecutive year of iso 14001 accreditation.

In closing, as you can see, Ellesmere Port has made tremendous progress over the last 12 months and moving forward the plant will continue to aggressively achieve our objectives as we continue our journey on the road to a world class manufacturing facility. From my

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perspective, in this highly competitive industry and i look at our challenges as a race ‌‌..

A race without a finish line, but a race we need to win.

Thank you and have a safe day!

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