THOUSANDS of car jobs have been safeguarded after a tense stand-off between Land Rover and City accountants KPMG was resolved.
The two have agreed to settle a dispute that Land Rover said threatened 1,400 jobs at its Solihull plant and 10,000 more at its suppliers.
The dispute centred on the supply of chassis for the Discovery model from the sole supplier, Midlands-based UPF, which was declared insolvent in December.
As receivers, KPMG wanted to renegotiate the terms of the supply contract at UPF to keep the firm going until a buyer could be found.
Future deliveries of the Discovery chassis were threatened, and Land Rover's parent company, Ford, took a court injunction to secure supplies on an interim basis.
Land Rover keeps only limited stocks and said it may have run out of Discovery chassis in days, forcing it to halt manufacture of the model.
It has now agreed to take on the debt at UPF, guaranteeing supply and jobs in the beleaguered British manufacturing sector.
The deal also sees new receivers Grant Thornton brought in by Land Rover to run UPF as an ongoing business.
UPF employs 550 staff across three sites - Thompson Chassis in Wolverhampton, Homer Pressings in Walsall and Thompson Congleton in Congleton, Cheshire.
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