JLR sales drop 6% in a year

JAGUAR Land Rover saw a huge six per cent fall in sales in 2019, new figures have revealed.

The blame has been placed on a weak Chinese auto market and falling demand for diesel vehicles in Europe.

In a year of two halves, the West Midlands luxury car maker saw total sales of 557,706 vehicles in 2019.

Land Rover sales fell 3.8 per cent to 396,105 for the year, while Jaguar sales dropped 11 per cent to 161,601.

There was a near-14 per cent slump in sales in China, but in the last six months the company reported double-digit growth in the country. And overall company sales were up 1.3 per cent in December, Automotive News Europe reported.

Felix Brautigam, chief commercial officer at JLR, said: “2019 was a year of two halves.

“Over the last six months we saw a marked improvement in China, where intensive work with our retailers, combined with significant process and product improvements are starting to gain traction.”

JLR announced plans to axe 4,500 workers in January 2019 and it has been pursuing measures to reduce costs and improve cash flows by £2.5 billion. In May the company announced another 130 job losses in more cost-cutting measures, days after it announced a £3.6 billion annual loss.

The cull affected salaried DHL staff across all sites, including Castle Bromwich and Solihull.

JLR employs just under 39,000 workers at Castle Bromwich, Solihull and Wolverhampton and Halewood on Merseyside.