Jaguar and Land Rover, both owned by Ford, yesterday announced plans for a total of more than 800 redundancies at their UK plants despite booming sales.

Jaguar, where sales are up 57% this year at about 90,000 units, said it was looking for 150 voluntary redundancies at Halewood and 250 at its plants in Birmingham and Coventry.

Land Rover, which sold 29,000 vehicles in the first eight months of the year, said it expected to shed 400 posts, mainly at its Solihull plant in the west Midlands.

Unions claimed that the two companies had plans for more than 1,200 job losses. They each employ about 12,000 worldwide.

Ford officials insisted, however, that the redundancies reflected the companies' need for the "right level of skills mix". Land Rover has re cruited 95 graduates in the past 12 months.

Tony Woodley, deputy leader of the TGWU and chief industry negotiator, said the redundancies were no surprise and were likely to be over-subscribed.

"In Jaguar, like Ford, they have what we call a 'twice-yearly cull' to remove the surplus headcount gained through productivity agreements in the last six months. There is no doubt that it is aligning headcount with future production requirements," he said.

Jaguar recently announced changes to shift patterns, in cluding a four-day week from late October, at Halewood where it produces the X-type , in case demand in the North American market flags.

Similarly, Land Rover admitted that the market was unsettled because of subdued consumer confidence in North America. But officials insisted global sales at both companies were still heading upwards.

· ABB, the engineering firm which makes machinery for the electricity supply industry, announced plans to cut nearly 400 jobs at its Dundee and Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, plants in an effort to shore up productivity.