HONDA has refuted any suggestions that the future of the plant in Swindon is in doubt.

The company has reported a profit of just £1m on sales of £2bn, which has once again sparked rumours about the future of the Swindon site.

In March, 500 jobs were lost when Honda of the UK Manufacturing shut one of its two production lines at Swindon.

According to yesterday’s Sunday Times, the main issue has been poor sales throughout Europe and capacity at Swindon has reduced from 250,000 cars a year to around 150,000.

Just 133,600 vehicles were sold in the year to the end of March, which was down 20 per cent on the previous year.

The Swindon plant manufactures the Civic hatchback, which has not been selling well, along with the CR-V family car but there are no plans to “mothball” the site, as it did for four months in 2009.

Ian Howells, senior vice president, Honda Motor Europe, said today: "Honda remains absolutely committed to producing cars at Swindon for the long-term.

"Since 2011, Honda has invested more than £250 million in the plant and in the past year, further significant investments, as we have introduced production of the all-new Civic Tourer.  

"We are also preparing to start producing new variants of the Civic and CR-V (production of which will start in January 2015). Furthermore, in mid-2015, we will start production of the long-awaited Civic Type R.

"Following the industry-wide long term reduction in European sales, in March 2014, Honda announced that it would be moving all production onto 1 line (with Line 2 standing idle whilst sales volumes remain at their current level).

"This ensures that our production volumes are in line with anticipated sales volumes.

"Furthermore, this gives the business a much sounder financial foundation for the future.

Swindon currently produce the Jazz, Civic, Civic Tourer and CR-V. It has 3,000 employees or 'associates' working at Honda of the UK Manufacturing (HUM).