Jaguar Land Rover will remove 300 management positions as well as 150 salaried agency staff in a new round of cuts, the Warwickshire-based firm announced today.
Around 450 jobs will be cut in total in an effort to reduce costs in response to the worsening financial climate and falling car sales. The JLR management will also not receive any bonuses during 2009, and any scheduled pay increases have been delayed until 1 October 2009.
Despite recent figures published by the Society of Motor Manufacturer and Traders, which show an increase in Jaguar’s annual sales, the company will still bear a number of the job losses.
Jaguar sales rose by nine per cent over the previous year, but Land Rover sales have suffered a 30 per cent fall amid dwindling demand for large SUVs and last year’s huge increases in fuel prices.
“Our employees understand that Jaguar Land Rover functions as one company and that this move will help both companies’ positioning as we move forward,” said the company’s corporate affairs director Don Hume.
JLR announced in October last year that the company was to cut nearly 200 jobs, with the news of a further 400 voluntary redundancies announced in November, a number since reduced to 300.
>> Read more on JLR's October redundancies
>> Read more on JLR's November cutbacks
The latest round of 450 redundancies will also be conducted on a voluntary basis, but JLR CEO David Smith is aware of the difficult times ahead.
“We don’t expect sales conditions to return to normal levels for some time,” Smith said. “It is critical that Jaguar Land Rover becomes a more efficient and dynamic organisation to face up to the challenges that we will meet in the years ahead.”
JLR’s Indian owners, Tata Motors, approached the UK government for loans in December, but has since invested 'hundreds of millions of pounds' across the two companies. Negotiations over government money are ongoing.
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