LONDON (AP) -- British company Leyland Trucks said Thursday it would cut about 250 jobs, or a fifth of its work force, blaming a dramatic drop in demand.
The PACCAR Inc. subsidiary said the move was prompted by a crash in the market for heavy trucks across Europe.
It also said its factory in Leyland, in northern England -- which has been producing trucks for 116 years -- would double the length of its Christmas break to two weeks.
Leyland Trucks Ltd., founded in 1896, makes about 17,000 trucks annually. Its vehicles can be found hauling cargo on roads from Western Europe to North America.
It was acquired by Bellevue, Washington-based PACCAR, the world's No. 2 maker of big rig trucks, in 1998 behind Daimler Trucks.
