Car maker VDL Nedcar is to cut its staff by almost half in November as the company’s contract with BMW comes to an end.

The company, based in Born in Limburg, has a workforce of 3,950 but will cut out one complete day shift towards the end of the year, reducing the number of staff to 2,100.

The redundancies are not unexpected, given no replacement for BMW has been found.

The company has fought hard to find a new customer, managing director John van Soerland said. “Ultimately – due to turbulent conditions in the car market – time has proved too short to keep the entire population employed. We regret this and to our employees who will lose their jobs, we are sorry.”

The job losses will affect 1,000 people on permanent contracts and some 800 staffing agency workers. More job losses next year cannot be ruled out, the company said.

The unions have called on the company to invest €240 mln in a redundancy package for workers who are laid off when the factory stops making Minis for the German car firm next March and no agreement has yet been reached.

The dispute triggered two days of wildcat stoppages last year, ahead of the officially sanctioned strikes last month, called by the FNV, CNV and De Unie.

The factory, the only car making facility in the Netherlands, has a production capacity of up to 200,000 cars per year, based on two-shift operations and is highly automated.