Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is the UK's biggest car maker and employs nearly 14,500 workers at five sites, which include three manufacturing plants and two product development centres. It is a major wealth generator for the UK with 78 per cent of Land Rovers exported to 169 countries and 70 per cent of Jaguars to 63 countries.
Since JLR is a premium car maker and its major markets like the US, Russia, China and certain parts of Europe are now on their way to recovery, analysts feel that JLR's good run could continue into 2011-2012. In September, Tata Motors revealed JLR had made a pre-tax profit of £233.8 million with sales up by 30 per cent year-on-year at 19,386 units in July 2010-Jaguar sales were up 26 per cent at 5,676 units while Land Rover sales grew at a higher 31 per cent to 13,710 units in July.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) owner Tata is also set to pump £5 billion into the business, creating thousands of new jobs – and the firm’s iconic Castle Bromwich factory is safe for at least ten years. The ‘death sentence’ was lifted from the plant in a remarkable about-turn by JLR owners Tata. Just over a year after stunning the West Midlands with a scheme to close one of its two regional factories, JLR delighted its 16,000-strong UK workforce with plans for new models and volume growth.
The company is ploughing in £5 billion of new investment, allowing Solihull, Castle Bromwich and Halewood plants to be retained, a range of new models to be introduced. JLR said it would create thousands of new jobs in Britain over the next decade as increases in the model range boost global volumes across its markets worldwide.
Chief executive Ralf Speth said: “We have ambitious plans for growth and the success of our products around the world will allow us to accelerate and realize those plans.
“ “We have already started by beginning to hire 1,500 new employees to support the launch of the new Range Rover Evoque at Halewood.Our parent company Tata supported us through the recession and our employees also made sacrifices, but now we are seeing a great turnaround in the business. This is truly the beginning of a new era for Jaguar Land Rover.”
