JAGUAR Land Rover has today announced 4,500 job losses.
It is a major blow to Coventry, Solihull and the West Midlands, with tens of thousands of other jobs in the supply chain.
The jobs will be shed ‘globally’, but many are expected to come in our region, the Coventry-based company announced.
It is part of a £2.5billion savings programme over an initial 18 months and beyond.
Today’s expected announcement follows a year of job losses and business uncertainty at the luxury car-maker.
As we have reported, hundreds of jobs went at Solihull’s Lode Lane plant and at Castle Bromwich.
Around 1,000 workers also switched to a three-day week.
The volatility has been explained by the switch away from diesel and government taxes on the polluting fuel, as well as the transition to electric technology which JLR is investing in.
JLR chief executive Ralf Speth has also repeatedly warned of mass job losses resulting from a ‘no-deal’ Brexit.
The company announced today its “next phase of a major transformation plan to lay the foundations for long-term sustainable profitable growth”.
It said the measures would create a “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.”
There will be “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.
Dr Speth said: “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 and Shared technologies.”
Voluntary redundancy will be sought in the first instance.
The UK workforce is 40,000, the majority of which are based in the Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire region.
Dr Speth added: “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.
JLR says its ‘Charge and Accelerate’ programme has identified over £1bn of improvements, with more than £500mn already realised in 2018.
In the last year, JLR’s range 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.
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.
