The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Jaguar Land Rover to cut 4,500 jobs in savings bid
Cars: Most cuts expected to be in UK with voluntary programme launched
Car giant Jaguar Land Rover is to cut 4,500 jobs under plans to make £2.5 billion of cost savings, the company has announced.
Most of the cuts are expected to be in the UK, with a voluntary programme being launched.
The savings and “cashflow improvements” will be made over the next 18 months.
The new job losses are in addition to the 1,500 workers who left the company last year.
Ralf Speth, chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover, said: “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.”
The firm also announced further investment in electrification, with electric drive units to be built at its factory in Wolverhampton and a new battery assembly centre at Hams Hall in Birmingham.
JLR employs 44,000 workers in the UK at sites in Halewood on Merseyside and Solihull, Castle Bromwich and Wolverhampton in the West Midlands.
In October last year, the car giant unveiled a £2.5bn turnaround plan that included cost cutting after Brexit uncertainty and slowing demand in China left it nursing a hefty second-quarter loss.
The firm, owned by Indian conglomerate Tata, booked a £90 million pretax loss in the three months to September 30, which compared with a £385m profit in the same period in 2017.
In China, demand was adversely impacted by consumer uncertainty following import duty changes and escalating trade tensions with the US.
In the UK, “continuing uncertainty related to Brexit” was blamed.
Meanwhile, Ford signalled “significant” cuts among its 50,000-strong European workforce under plans to make it more competitive and make its business more sustainable.
The company started consultations with unions, with details of job cuts not expected until later in the year, although staff based at Warley in the West Midlands will move to Dunton in Essex.