TRANSIT firm Ford last night warned its slashed Southampton workforce that more downtime at the plant may be on the way.

The company said that if demand for its iconic van continued to fall then it will have to examine production time at the Swaythling factory.

The warning comes as a major change gets under way at the city plant from today.

Daily Echo: Click below to see a video of today's headlines in sixty seconds

The 500 staff remaining at the factory will spend the next three weeks of production downtime retraining and preparing the plant to run on a permanent single shift.

The motor giant claims that cutting more than half its workers has helped secure the future for those still producing the iconic Transit van.

Bosses also said they are committed to a future in Southampton and will be investing millions to retool it for chassis cab production but will export Transit van production to Turkey.

Ford spokesman Brian Bennett said: “It is unlikely that we will need to make further job cuts now or when Southampton concentrates on the chassis cab production.

“However, we have to react to the economic situation and we can never say never but if demand continues to fall it is likely that we will introduce more downtime.”

News of the 500 job cuts was exclusively revealed by the Daily Echo in February.

After months of uncertainty the company was oversubscribed with workers wanting to take voluntary redundancy or early retirement. Some of the long-serving high-grade workers walked away with around £100,000 including their pension.

Unions fear the local economy may have lost as much as £20m and downsizing the plant may be the first step towards closure for Ford in Southampton.