Nissan says it will seek voluntary job cuts at U.K. plant
Nissan said the move was aimed at increasing the efficiency of the Sunderland plant in northeastern England to make it a "leaner, more flexible" operation.
It did not say how many job cuts it was targeting. Kyodo News, which earlier reported the planned cuts, said Nissan was aiming to lay off 250 workers.
"We will begin discussions with some of our employees at the Sunderland plant this week about voluntary retirement opportunities and support from the company," Nissan said in a statement.
Along with the job cuts, Nissan Chief Executive Ivan Espinosa has announced plans to close seven plants worldwide, although Sunderland is not expected to be among them.
The factory is seen as critical to Nissan's European operations and it plans to make the new version of its Leaf EV there.
Separately, it was reported on Monday that Nissan has asked some suppliers in Britain and the European Union to delay payments to free up short-term funds, as it scrambles to boost cash.
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Japan Times
9 hours ago
- Japan Times
Shintaro Awa appointed to head the kitchen of L'Ambroisie in Paris
Shintaro Awa, formerly the chef de cuisine of the three-Michelin-starred Epicure of Hotel Le Bristol in Paris, has taken over esteemed chef-owner Bernard Pacaud's role at the stalwart L'Ambroisie in Paris. L'Ambroisie is a dining icon. Opened in 1981 by Pacaud, it went on to earn three Michelin stars in 1988, a feat it has maintained till this day. In November 2015, U.S. President Barack Obama dined with French President Francois Hollande at the restaurant. The establishment also made an appearance in the 2019 Japanese drama series, 'La Grande Maison Tokyo,' in which Takuya Kimura's character trained at the restaurant. The 77-year-old Pacaud announced his gradual retirement two years ago. In 2023, he sold a majority share of his restaurant to Butler Industries — an investor in France's luxury and lifestyle sectors that also owns Pierre Herme Paris — but continued to oversee the restaurant during its two-year handover period. In July 2023, chef Christophe Moret, who was previously working at Shangri-La Paris, was announced as his successor. But Moret left the job after only two months as the philosophies of the two chefs did not align. Pacaud's son, Mathieu, is a chef who used to work with him, but the pair reportedly have different culinary styles: In 2015, Mathieu decided to set up his own restaurants, ruling out the chance of a family succession. A top Parisian chef, who has declined to be named, introduced Awa to Butler Industries' founder Walter Butler as a possible replacement for Pacaud. Pacaud was already aware of Awa's talent, having tasted his food at Epicure and being impressed with his minimal style and deft cooking techniques. Convinced by his potential, he agreed to hire him. Together with L'Ambroisie's new owner, Butler Industries' CEO Walter Butler (center), chef Awa will continue the fine dining legacy of his predecessor, Pacaud (right). | BUTLER INDUSTRIES Awa, 39, is a devotee of French cuisine. Inspired by the legendary Japanese chef Masao Saisu who worked with Pacaud at L'Ambroisie, he left Japan for France in 2004 when he was just 18 years old. He started his career in Restaurant Regis & Jacques Marcon in Haute-Loire in 2007, before moving to Restaurant Paul Bocuse in Lyon in 2009 and Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athenee in Paris in 2012. In 2013, he was hired as a sous-chef at Epicure before being promoted to chef de cuisine in 2022. A fan of Pacaud's food, Awa recalls being impressed by the chef's famous sea bass escalopes with sliced artichoke and caviar, describing the dish as 'no frills but (filled with) perfection.' He calls Pacaud a true shokunin (craftsman), a chef who has kept his head down and focused only on his cooking even though he has the fame of retaining three Michelin stars for 37 years. 'His passion to deliver delicious food to the guests is what I admire,' says Awa. 'I want to be such a chef. Since the start of my career, I've wanted to be such a shokunin.' Pacaud says Awa possesses the 'rigor, humility and passion that make great chefs.' 'I'm very happy to support him and open the doors of this great establishment that is so dear to my heart,' he adds. With his successor found, Pacaud will officially retire, bringing an end to a nearly 45-year career in the echelons of French fine dining. For nearly 45 years, Pacaud stuck by his brand of classic French cuisine, offering simple, precise dishes such as sea bass escalopes with sliced artichoke and caviar. | KYOKO NAKAYAMA On July 1, Butler Industries officially became L'Ambroisie's new owner while Awa formally took over the kitchen as its executive chef. In August, the restaurant will undergo a renovation, which would likely be completed by autumn. L'Ambrosie made a name for itself as a place for traditional French cuisine, and Awa plans to continue this legacy. 'I don't want to do fusion. The only Japanese element I would like to express is 'minimalism,'' he says. 'I don't want to put too many components in one dish. I'll only add what is truly necessary — whether it's vegetables, spices, a sauce or condiments — to enhance its texture. I would like to showcase the beauty of French ingredients.'

Japan Times
a day ago
- Japan Times
Blistering heat and empty chairs mar U.N.'s flagship development event
Brutal heat scorched Spain this week, a blistering reminder of the climate change that is battering the world's poorest countries — stretching their finances even as government debt climbs to new heights. But at a once-a-decade U.N. development finance conference in Seville, two key ingredients were in less abundance: money and power. Just one Group of Seven leader — French President Emmanuel Macron — attended the event, where he and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez addressed rooms with dozens of empty chairs. Organizers initially said they expected 70 heads of state; that was whittled to 50 as the conference got underway. Back in Washington, Paris, London and Berlin, rich-country leaders are slashing aid and cutting bilateral lending in a pivot to defense spending and rising debt at home. "The mood is ... I would say realistic, but also a sense of unity and of pragmatism," said Alvaro Lario, president of the International Fund of Agricultural Development, adding that the question on everyone's mind this week was how to do more with less. "How can we come together, or think out of the box, or create new type of ways of really stretching it more?" The Financing For Development meeting is a flagship U.N. conference, charting the trajectory to help tackle changes the world must make to tax policies, aid spending or key areas such as debt, health and education. Its outcomes guide global aid funding and U.N. policies for the decade to come. Few disagree over the need for action. Hundred-year floods and storms are happening with alarming regularity, and rising debt-servicing costs are siphoning money away from health, education and infrastructure spending in the developing world. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez delivers a speech during the close of the U.N. conference in Seville on Thursday. | AFP-Jiji But even top developing-world leaders such as Mia Mottley, the Barbados prime minister and a prominent global climate champion, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, currently chairing the Group of 20 major economies, backed out of the event at the last minute. The media room was stacked with Spanish press gossiping about a domestic political scandal while disillusioned civil-society leaders stalked the halls, upset with the watered-down agenda and the lack of fiscal or political firepower. "We are facing a backsliding of many agendas that we had advanced a few years ago," said Henrique Frota, director of ABONG, a Brazilian association of NGOs. "Developed countries are reducing their investment in (official development assistance) and European countries are not fulfilling their commitment ... they are giving less and less money right now for every kind of agenda." Event leaders were relieved to produce an outcome document — despite gnawing fears in the past months that Washington would torpedo any deal. In the end, U.S. officials backed out altogether. "The entire community was very afraid of coming here because one country wasn't attending," said U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Marcos Neto. "But the document ended up working out ... I'm leaving happy, with more optimism than I thought I would leave with." Neto highlighted significant steps toward implementing climate and development goals, including the Seville Platform and multiple agreements from public and private sectors to leverage funds for the biggest possible impact. A woman carries an umbrella near Las Setas during a heat wave in Seville on July 2. | REUTERS The Seville Commitment included tripling multilateral lending capacity, debt relief, a push to boost tax-to-gross domestic product ratios to at least 15%, and get more rich countries to let the International Monetary Fund use "special drawing rights" money for countries that need it most. But in Seville, only host nation Spain signed on to commit 50% of its special drawing rights funds for the purpose. U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed acknowledged that the attendance was not as star-studded as hoped, and that public funds are under pressure. "But there's innovative financing, there's the private sector, there's the triple lending of MDBs... so the resources are there," she said, referring to multilateral development banks. "We just have to have the political will to leverage through these mechanisms that have come out of the platform of action and continue moving with them." U.S. President Donald Trump, despite his country's absence, loomed large over the event; his climate change skepticism, hostility toward diversity initiatives and pledge to review U.S. participation in multilateral organizations made some keen to strip out references to climate change and rebrand initiatives as focused on resilience, education or health. Still, some said the gloomy backdrop should not deter leaders focused on progress. "Ultimately the important thing is doing it," said Jose Vinals, a former group chairman of Standard Chartered and cochair of both the FFD4 Business Steering Committee and the Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance. "The private sector is, for the most part, still willing to walk the talk."

Japan Times
a day ago
- Japan Times
Max Verstappen sidesteps questions about future ahead of British GP
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