In September 2011,
Ford of Europe confirmed that Southampton would continue to make the short and medium wheelbase, and Tourneo minibus versions, of the Transit for two more years. Production of these was then to be consolidated to Turkey with the new model in 2014, while Southampton was to continue as the European centre for the chassis-cab variant of the new Transit, with production ramped up to 35,000 units a year. On 26 October 2012, Ford announced that, as part of a larger cutback of their European production capacity, the Southampton factory would close altogether in July 2013, with production for Europe of all the new Transit models shifted to Turkey. The Dagenham Stamping Plant was also to be shut down; this plant had provided most of the sheet metal panels for the Southampton Assembly Plant. The last Transit went into production on 15 July 2013 and was completed on 26 July. Workers who had not accepted either redundancy or early retirement were redeployed to: • A new £12 million distribution centre at Southampton Docks • A new vehicle refurbishment plant at the existing site, employing 134 staff • Ford's other UK factories manufacturing engines, at Bridgend (petrol) or Dagenham (diesel). Demolition of the Southampton plant began in 2015 and by September 2017, the factories on the site had been completely demolished. ==References==