May shut UK biz, warns Jaguar CEO

Edinburgh, July 5: Britain’s biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover has joined dissenters to a “hard Brexit”, saying that Britain leaving the EU without a trade deal would cost it £ 1.2 billion ($ 1.59 billion) a year and curtail its future UK operations.

In a statement late on Wednesday, JLR’s CEO Ralf Speth said the car market needed “free and frictionless trade with the EU and unrestricted access to the single market” in order to ensure future success.

The car giant joined a growing list of companies, including Airbus and Siemens last week, who have voiced concerns about potential disruption if Britain crashes out of the bloc next March without a trading agreement with the European Union — a socalled hard Brexit.

“We urgently need greater certainty to continue to invest heavily in the UK and safeguard our suppliers, customers and 40,000 British- based employees,” JLR’s CEO Ralf Speth said in a statement late on Wednesday.

Asked about JLR’s worries, British business minister Greg Clark said the government was seeking a solution which worked for business. “I’m determined that investment will come to the UK,” Clark told reporters.

A meeting on Friday of British government ministers to try to agree a position for negotiations with the EU would take the concerns of business into consideration, he said. “I think it’s right that ( our meeting) should be informed by the evidence of businesses large and small.”

Shares in Tata Motors plunged to their lowest in more than five years as investors turned jittery on the company. JLR is its biggest business and contributed nearly 77 per cent of its total revenue in the year ended March 31, 2018.