There were celebrations today at Honda of the UK Manufacturing Ltd (HUM) in Swindon as they introduced a second shift within their Car Plant 2 facility. As announced in December 2011, 500 new Associates were being recruited and today, they began their new roles within the Plant. This brings the total number of employees at HUM to 3,500, with the production volume forecast to double to 180,000 units in 2012.
Speaking in December, Honda Motor Europe President Manabu Nishimae said Honda remained totally committed to building cars and engines in Europe with Swindon at the heart of Honda’s European manufacturing activities. This move to a two shift pattern on Line 2 represents a further 
step in HUM’s increased production activity, and coincides with growing demand for Honda’s new Civic family hatchback.
HUM Director, Andy Piatek commented, "I am delighted to welcome our new Associates. At HUM we are proud of the skills of our workforce and the quality and reliability of the products we build."
New Honda Associate, Dan Smith, spoke about his excitement at starting work at Honda, "I am really looking forward to building the new Civic here at HUM. Over the past few months we have been through all kinds of training and now it’s finally time to get started!"
In addition to the new Civic and the successful Jazz, 2012 will also see the mass production launch of the new European CR-V and the introduction of a new small diesel engine, both of which will be produced at HUM.
