More than 130 staff at Jaguar Land Rover are being axed amid cost-cutting measures - days after the company announced a £3.6bn annual loss.

The cull will affect salaried DHL staff across all sites, including Castle Bromwich and Solihull.

Staff were dealt the blow on Monday (May 20) after receiving a briefing statement.

One under-threat employee said the news had "shocked everyone". They added: "Yet more job cuts at JLR, this time with DHL salaried staff.

"Salaried staff have been told that 135 jobs in line-feed operation and 24 in UK freight have to go, out of circa 800, as part of the contract renewal with JLR.

"This is across all sites, so will affect Castle Brom, Solihull, Midpoint, Tyrefort, X Dock and Halewood.

Pictured GV of gates at Jaguar Land Rover production plant at Castle Bromwich, Birmingham
Pictured GV of gates at Jaguar Land Rover production plant at Castle Bromwich, Birmingham

"Letters have come out to say that it isn't being made public as it is just an internal matter.

"But it's more jobs going on JLR sites which is adding to the 4,500 already. Shocking news to us all as we had been told all cuts had been made."

In January, JLR announced plans to cut 4,500 of its workforce to make £2.5 billion in cost savings.

The company employs just under 39,000 workers at Castle Bromwich, Solihull and Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, and Halewood on Merseyside.

DHL Supply Chain are thought to employ around 800 people across the sites.

A spokeswoman for DHL Supply Chain confirmed the latest job cuts.

Pictured GV of gates at Jaguar Land Rover production plant at Castle Bromwich, Birmingham
Pictured GV of gates at Jaguar Land Rover production plant at Castle Bromwich, Birmingham

In a statement to BirminghamLive they said: "As part of our contractual renewal process and recognising the need for productivity improvements and in the face of challenging trading conditions in the automotive sector, we have reviewed UK linefeed and freight operations service provided to Jaguar Land Rover.

"Regrettably, as a result of this review, we have identified the need to reduce our salaried linefeed headcount by approximately 135 people and the UK freight team by 24.

"Our EU freight organisation is unaffected by these proposals. We have communicated this news to potentially affected staff and will shortly enter into consultation with the company and their representatives to discuss their options.

"During this time every effort will be made to redeploy colleagues to other DHL operations and we are confident of reducing the number at risk.

"We would like to thank staff for their understanding at this difficult time and stress that the proposed changes are being made for strategic reasons and in no way reflect on the performance of the UK operation."

The briefing document sent out to DHL staff at JLR can be read in full below.

The document given out to DHL staff

DHL briefing as agency staff face axe

"DHL must always demonstrate that we can add significant value to our customer's operations, provide the innovation and scale commensurate with a logistics provider with our global presence and, above all, to do so in a highly productive and cost effective way. Contract renewal has added greater emphasis and urgency to this obligation.

"In addition, trading concerns within the automotive sector have proved very demanding across the globe, with Europe and the UK facing particular difficulties and we have to ensure that as a key supplier we manager our costs to fit the needs of our customer.

"This means that we now have to review the costs of our management and other salaried staff to match the requirements of a new contract.

"We have been in close and detailed dialogue with out customer to look at how our activities and support levels can be done differently, reduced or, in some cases, stopped altogether.

"This has led us to the inevitable conclusion that we will need to reduce out salaried establishment across the JLR linefeed and JLR UK freight accounts. This announcement signals our intention to commence a consultation period in relation to this.

"We have developed proposals to reduce our salaried operations and functional roles in linefeed by approximately 135 positions across all of the linefeed operations' sites and functions.

"In addition, UK freight have proposals to reduce our establishment by 24 positions across operations and planning. Our EU freight organisation is not affected by these proposals.

"We will collectively consult with the potentially impacted groups of people and will make a further announcement shortly about how you can participate in the collective consultation committee. Training will be provided to all elected representatives to ensure they understand their role in the collective consultation process."