JLR buyer Tata Motors' first annual loss in 8 years points fingers directly at the iconic British marque, but there are headlights at the end of this tunnel, right?
JLR buyer Tata Motors' first annual loss in 8 years points fingers directly at the iconic British marque, but there are headlights at the end of this tunnel, right?
Tata Motors has recently come out of its silence and warned that - after suffering a 280 million pound, 10-month loss - more job cuts at Jaguar Land Rover are likely. This, after 450 "redundancies" were made at the start of the year. The firm still employs 14,500. That loss makes up the lion's share of the 315 million pound loss the company has suffered through March 31, overall.
The cut-backs will likely begin with shutdowns at JLR factories in Castle Bromwich, Coventry, Solihull and Halewood, Merseyside. Blame it on the worldwide recession, but the fact is that JLR sales went from 246,000 to 167,000, year-to-year, falling 32% in the 10 months leading up to March 31.
So, where are the headlights at the end of this tunnel? Most economists agree that we are all pulling out of the ridiculous spending spree that led us to this situation - on a number of fronts - and that this big ship is slowly, ever so slowly, righting itself. Land Rover is well-positioned to emerge as a leader in its field due to the futuristic LRX and its industry-leading green initiatives. And sales of the Jaguar XF showed a "very strong consumer response" despite the recession.
While it's only a small concession to anyone losing their job at JLR, one can be optimistic that these job cuts may only be temporary.
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