An increase in production of Vauxhall’s Vivaro van means 250 jobs will be created in Luton, it has been announced.
Fears that the town’s plant would close were quelled in March 2011, with the decision to build the new van at the Kimpton Road site.
The move safeguarded 1,100 jobs, with a further 250 now created to add a second shift and increase output.
The new positions will be phased in over the first quarter of 2015.
Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant in Cheshire will also take on 300 new employees ahead of production of a new Astra model.
The recruitment drive is the firm’s “first significant new-hire programme for a decade”, according to Vauxhall.
Tim Tozer, Vauxhall’s chairman and managing director, said: “This is great news for Vauxhall and for British manufacturing.
“Both of our UK manufacturing plants have won long contracts with all-new products and as the business strengthens, we now need to take on more people to build these exciting new Vauxhalls.”
Making the announcement, General Motors Europe president Karl-Thomas Neumann said that the move is an ‘incredible turnaround’ after concerns about both plants.