Jaguar News: Jaguar Land Rover Unveils their Cuts Totaling 2.5 Billion Pounds

[William Maley]

---

Ford wasn't the only automaker to announce cuts this week. On Thursday, Jaguar Land Rover announced they would cutting 10 percent of their global workforce (4,500 jobs) as part of a 2.5 billion pound (about $3.2 billion) effort to reduce costs and improve cash flow through 2020.

As we reported last month, JLR got hit with a triple whammy of bad news; declining sales in China, falling demand for diesel vehicles, and the looming threat of Brexit. 

The company reported that retail sales fell 4.6 percent in 2018, mostly due to the uncertainty surrounding Brexit. That pales in comparison to the 22 percent drop in sales seen in the Chinese market - due mostly in part to the trade war. 

JLR CEO Dr. Ralph Speth said the cuts were a response to “multiple geopolitical and regulatory disruptions as well as technology challenges facing the automotive industry.”

The company said the cuts will focus on those in design, engineering, supervisory, and senior management. No cuts are expected to hit those in production.

Source: Bloomberg, Jaguar Land Rover

---

JAGUAR LAND ROVER IMPLEMENTS NEXT PHASE OF TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME

Jaguar Land Rover, the UK’s largest vehicle manufacturer, today outlined the next phase of ‘Charge and Accelerate’, the company’s ongoing transformation programme to deliver £2.5bn in cost reductions and cashflow improvements over 18 months as well as long-term strategic operating efficiencies.

• Next phase of major transformation plan to lay foundations for long-term sustainable profitable growth
• Creation of leaner, more resilient organisation; reducing global workforce by around 4,500 people. This is in addition to 1,500 people who left the business in 2018
• Further investment into electrification with Electric Drive Units to be produced at Wolverhampton Engine Manufacturing Centre and new Battery Assembly Centre to be established at Hams Hall, North Warwickshire
• CEO Prof. Dr. Ralf Speth: “Decisive action will help deliver resilient long-term growth as Jaguar Land Rover implements cost and profit improvements. This will safeguard our future and enable vital ongoing investment into Autonomous, Connected, Electric

Jaguar Land Rover, the UK’s largest vehicle manufacturer, today outlined the next phase of ‘Charge and Accelerate’, the company’s ongoing transformation programme to deliver £2.5bn in cost reductions and cashflow improvements over 18 months as well as long-term strategic operating efficiencies.

Jaguar Land Rover is expanding a business-wide organisation review aimed at reducing the size of its global workforce by around 4,500 people. This is in addition to the 1,500 who left the company during 2018. The next phase of this transformation programme will begin with a voluntary redundancy programme in the UK. This strategic review will create a leaner, more resilient organisation with a flatter management structure.

We are taking decisive action to help deliver long-term growth, in the face of multiple geopolitical and regulatory disruptions as well as technology challenges facing the automotive industry. The ‘Charge and Accelerate’ programme combines efficiency measures with targeted investment, safeguarding our future and ensuring that we maximise the opportunities created by growing demand for Autonomous, Connected, Electric and Shared technologies.
PROF. DR. RALF SPETH
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF JAGUAR LAND ROVER

So far, the ‘Charge and Accelerate’ programme has identified over £1bn of improvements, with more than £500mn already realised in 2018. The savings and improvements achieved will enable Jaguar Land Rover to fund vital investments into technology to safeguard its future.

These investments include today’s announcement that, from later this year, next-generation Electric Drive Units (EDU) will be produced at the company’s Engine Manufacturing Centre in Wolverhampton. These EDUs will be powered by batteries assembled at a new Jaguar Land Rover Battery Assembly Centre located at Hams Hall, North Warwickshire, reinforcing the company’s commitment to the West Midlands and the UK.

The Battery Assembly Centre will be one of the largest of its kind in the UK, using new production techniques and technologies to manufacture battery packs for future Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles.

The latest investments and the transformation measures aim to build on unprecedented growth achieved by Jaguar Land Rover over the past decade, enabling the company to launch today’s range of award-winning Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles. In the last year alone, the company’s global product portfolio has expanded to include the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE, the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport with PHEV derivatives and, most recently, the new Range Rover Evoque, also with next-generation hybrid technology.

In 2018, the company continued its global expansion with the opening of its latest vehicle manufacturing plant in Slovakia as well as investment into specialist engineering hubs in the Republic of Ireland, Hungary and Manchester, UK. In the same year, Jaguar Land Rover also confirmed plans to invest in its Solihull plant to support the introduction of the next generation Range Rover and Range Rover Sport.

The next chapter in the story of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands will be the most exciting - and challenging - in our history. Revealing the iconic Defender, investing in cleaner, smarter, more desirable cars and electrifying our facilities to manufacture a future range of British-built electric vehicles will all form part of building a globally competitive and flourishing company.
PROF. DR. RALF SPETH
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF JAGUAR LAND ROVER

View full article

[A Horse With No Name]

Like I said elsewhere...time for many legacy car makers to go away. Bring on Tesla and the electrics!

Would be infinitely more sad about Jag than Ford. But maybe their time is past.

Looking forward in positive anticipation at what the future holds.

[balthazar]

Quote

Jaguar Land Rover announced they would cutting 10 percent of their global workforce (4,500 jobs)...

How HEARTLESS; right when employees' holiday credit card bills will hit!
BOYCOTT JLR; no public company should EVER fire a SINGLE employee!!!

😜

Edited January 12, 2019 by balthazar

[A Horse With No Name]

34 minutes ago, balthazar said:

 

 

How HEARTLESS; right when employees' holiday credit card bills will hit!
BOYCOTT JLR; no public company should EVER fire a SINGLE employee!!!

😜

I never said that at all...Free markets baby...all the pain up front beats keeping inefficient plants and unwanted products out of the production stream.

The pain is less if it is done directly, quickly, and by the people who have the most to loose...the owners and directors of the company.

[balthazar]

Not saying you 'said anything' - just a general response to those who've damned GM for the same thing. Goose/gander, right?

[A Horse With No Name]

3 hours ago, balthazar said:

Not saying you 'said anything' - just a general response to those who've damned GM for the same thing. Goose/gander, right?

I wasn't saying that you had...I was agreeing with you.

People would pretty much Damn GM for the shade of off white the outside of Lordsptown is painted with...

[regfootball]

4 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

I never said that at all...Free markets baby...all the pain up front beats keeping inefficient plants and unwanted products out of the production stream.

The pain is less if it is done directly, quickly, and by the people who have the most to loose...the owners and directors of the company.

Tesla's growth has hardly been a product of free market.  Tesla has benefitted from subsidy like lots of other green initiaitives back a few years ago.  No doubt the demand is free market as a rich guy toy, but Tesla doesn't even turn profit.

Really would be best if Tesla folded like it might, and even if GM buy it, carve the meat off the bone and feed the rest of the scraps to the dogs.

In general, legacy marques still can survive just fine, it's just that more and more of these makers have to collaborate on projects, platforms, powertrains, and technology.  It just a question of who wants to get into bed with who.  In theory GM should have been able to make Opel work or ever work with PSA, but Europe is a cultural world mess these days and I can see why GM would want to stay the eff out of it.

Edited January 13, 2019 by regfootball

[daves87rs]

Might slow them down a bit...hope it won’t hurt too much....

[David]

Socialist Europe is going to feel pain as you cannot promise work for ever, does not work that way in a global marketplace, there will always be winners and losers.

I expect some companies to close and new EV companies to replace them.