Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will cut about 2,000 jobs from its global workforce over the next year.
The high-end car company, which is owned by India-based Tata Motors, announced it had launched a widescale review as it prepared to become a “more agile organisation”, adding that the losses would not affect manufacturing staff.
JLR has its headquarters in Coventry and plants in Castle Bromwich, Solihull, and Halewood near Merseyside – all three of which will remain open. About 30,000 of the company’s 37,000 employees are based in the UK.
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The news comes in the wake of the company’s decision to make its Jaguar brand all-electric by 2025 despite disappointing sales for its only fully electric vehicle so far, the Jaguar I-Pace SUV.
The target is considered a tough ask for new CEO Thierry Bollore, the former CEO of Renault SA, who joined JLR in September.
Thousands of jobs have been lost at the company over the past two years amid a decline in sales, with the firm also previously citing uncertainty caused by Brexit.
Production stopped entirely last March before restarting at a reduced capacity in the summer.
In a statement yesterday (17 February), the firm said it had to make “every possible efficiency”.
“We need to reduce the cost base to achieve a lean foundation, which will allow us to transform most effectively into a more agile organisation,” said a spokesman, adding that JLR had begun to brief its salaried employees about the detail of the organisation review.
“This does not impact our hourly paid, manufacturing colleagues,” he said. “We anticipate a net reduction of around 2,000 people from our global salaried workforce in the next financial year.”
JLR reported a 38% rise in profit last quarter as the market in China recovered.
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Last year, JLR failed to comply with Europe’s carbon-dioxide emissions rules and has reportedly set aside £35m for expected fines.
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