Latest news with #Rosslyn
Zawya
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Zawya
South Africa: Nissan considering Rosslyn plant closure
Nissan is reportedly considering closing its Rosslyn plant in South Africa, with the brand's local division telling us it's currently 'conducting a detailed assessment' of the situation. Nissan's Rosslyn plant in South Africa is on the beleaguered automaker's list of 7 production facilities set to close over the next two years, according to a fresh report out of Japan. However, Nissan SA says it's not able to confirm whether the Gauteng-based plant will indeed be affected. Earlier in May 2025, Nissan announced a worldwide 'recovery' plan that includes 20,000 job cuts as well as the closure of seven production plants over the next two years. Now, citing unnamed sources, Reuters reports that the list includes twi factories in Japan and two in Mexico, along with plants in South Africa, India and Argentina. However, Nissan's global head office says the report is 'speculative and not based on any official information'. The Rosslyn plant currently builds only the Navara. asked Nissan South Africa to comment on the future of its Rosslyn plant and the company told us it's 'currently conducting a detailed assessment regarding the announced plant closures', adding in its statement that this process is 'internal'. As such, the Japanese firm's local division says it is unfortunately not able to confirm 'at this stage' which plants 'will be affected'. Nissan's global cost-cutting drive is built around reducing its workforce by 20,000 employees (including the previously announced 9,000 job cuts) and 'consolidating' its production plants from 17 to 10 by fiscal year 2027 (which starts in April 2027). Ivan Espinosa, Nissan president and CEO. In addition, Nissan says it will switch to a more 'market-specific approach', positioning the United States, Japan, China, Europe, the Middle East and Mexico as 'key markets' and adopting a 'customised approach to other markets'. As a reminder, in October 2023, Nissan South Africa entered a 'formal consultation phase to restructure the business '. This followed the news that the NP200 half-tonne bakkie – which went out of production at Rosslyn in March 2024 – would not receive its planned replacement. After some 16 years, Rosslyn production of the NP200 ended in March 2024. Since the NP200's demise, the Rosslyn factory – long described as Nissan's 'light commercial vehicle hub' for Africa – has been producing only the long-in-the-tooth D23-series Navara. However, in October 2024, Nissan SA's Managing Director Maciej Klenkiewicz told us the company was 'working on the replacement, but the process is starting from scratch'. At the reveal of the Navara Pro-4X Warrior in March 2025, Jordi Vila, President of Nissan Africa, said he 'sees a strong future for our company in Africa', adding that the Navara 'represents a core model in our plans to capture opportunities and expand our footprint'. Single- and double-cab Navara units are made at Rosslyn, for SA and other African markets. Over the opening four months of 2025, Nissan SA registered 1,838 units of the Rosslyn-made Navara locally, seeing it rank sixth on the list of Mzansi's best-selling bakkies, year to date (the Navara occupied the same position in 2024, with 4,874 units sold in SA). Over the same four-month period, the factory exported 3,101 units. Nissan officially opened its Rosslyn plant in 1966, meaning the factory has been producing new vehicles for nearly 60 years. In addition to various Datsun and Nissan nameplates, the factory has also built models from other brands, such as the first-generation Fiat Uno and Renault Sandero.
The Independent
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
London's oldest art fair marks 40th year with new works by celebrated British artists
Art fans spilled out of Somerset House as they tried to get their hands on a new work by renowned British print artist David Shrigley at the London Original Print Fair on Thursday (20 March). Now celebrating its 40th year, the fair saw iconic pieces by Picasso, Hockney, Warhol, Basquiat, Joan Miró and Tracey Emin hang walls away from Shrigley's 'I Will Not Allow The Dark Skies To Affect Me' – a yellow chick in his signature childlike style. The fair's anniversary exhibition, Prints from Private Collections: 40 years of Print Collecting, saw some 1,200 works from more than 40 exhibitors displayed in the rooms of Somerset House, with galleries bringing collections inclusive of everything from British Modernism to Indian printmaking to the walls. New work by Peter Blake – the legendary pop artist who co-created The Beatles' iconic Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – was unveiled at the fair by CCA Galleries. Elsewhere for music lovers, works by Radiohead's Thom Yorke were hung by Tin Man Art alongside pieces by the band's celebrated artwork designer Stanley Donwood, including the abstract album cover for OK Computer. For the Prints from Private Collections anniversary display, returning gallery Abbott and Holder collaborated with the Imperial War Museum to present a spotlight exhibition, 'The Great War: Britain's Efforts and Ideals'. The collection, previously held in storage at the Imperial War Museum, showcased original prints commissioned in 1917 from eighteen artists, inspired by the industry and values of wartime Britain. It had been more than 100 years since a commercial gallery had exhibited the lithographs. The London Print Fair itself is of historical note. Launched in 1985, the event holds the title for the city's oldest art fair. Its director of 38 years, Helen Rosslyn, told The Independent the fair launched because print dealers mostly didn't have shops or galleries to display in, so founder Gordon Cooke partnered with the Royal Academy of Arts (the fair's home until 2020) to host 16 exhibitors. 'It was a little stockroom, really,' she said. 'From that, it's just kept growing as people got more comfortable about buying prints.' Art consumers may once have looked down their noses at purchasing prints, thinking of the works as more like photocopies than an edition carefully created by the artist. But Rosslyn says this couldn't be more wrong. 'Printmaking is quite collaborative,' she explained. 'You get an artist and they will find a printmaker who's a specialist in the business of printing. They'll tell them the right inks, the right paper, and the relationship between a printer and an artist might go on for 40 years,' she said. 'Prints are original artworks because the artist always anticipated making an addition,' Rosslyn said while explaining the difference between a print and a copy. 'They aren't just a reproduction or something artists have made as a painting,' the art fair director added. 'It dates right back to [Albrecht] Dürer's day. He realised that if he did a great painting it would get stuck in somebody rich's house. Whereas, if he made a woodcut, just the simply carpenter could buy [a print] with a week's wages.' Addressing the print market's place in the art world, Rosslyn continued: 'I sort of like to think of prints as a well kept secret. But a lot of galleries are now setting up 'editions' wings. They're recognising that not only do prints bring in more people who can afford to buy art but it's a stable way of selling and collecting in a steady market.' It's also one of the only ways you can own a Picasso work for under £10,000 a piece.
