Global market pressures, the European diesel sales slump and issues around Brexit force JLR into major job cuts
Jaguar Land Rover is today expected to announce up to 5,000 job losses as part of its Charge & Accelerate restructuring plan, in the wake of falling sales and the announcement of big financial losses. The cuts equate to around 10% of JLR’s global workforce.
The company is aiming to save £2.5bn over the next 18 months, with the BBC reporting that management, marketing and administrative roles are expected to be hardest hit. There are not expected to be any plant closures or cuts to the current Jaguar or Land Rover model line-ups.
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These latest job losses are in addition to cutbacks announced last year with 1,000 workers at the Castle Bromwich plant put on a three-day week, while 1,000 agency workers were laid off in 2017.
Today’s announcement is expected to reveal a big financial loss in 2018 as a whole, following a loss of £90 million for the third quarter of last year. The loss is down to a big drop in sales; although UK sales were relatively stable in 2018 – down just 1.5% – China accounted for the biggest hit.
The company blames a combination of the collapse in the Chinese car market (down 15.4% in October), US trade tariffs, Brexit uncertainty, the drop in diesel sales (which account for around 90% of the company’s sales), confusion over CO2 and the challenges in meeting the latest WLTP fuel and emission tests.
One company insider commented that the company has simply ‘grown too fast’. In 2011 JLR produced 241,000 cars, while in 2018 over 600,000 vehicles were produced.
While Jaguar Land Rover is shedding jobs, sports car maker McLaren is hiring an additional 820 workers as part of its Track25 plan announced last July, aiming bringing production at its Woking plant to 6,000 cars per year.
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