Jaguar Land Rover to Idle Factories in Britain Next Month
Jaguar Land Rover has decided to stall production at two of its British factories for several weeks. Starting in late February, JLR intends to stop work at both its Castle Bromwich Assembly and Solihull plants until the end of March. The factories won’t be totally inactive for the duration; the manufacturer claims there will be half days intermixed with full-day closures.
Unlike the bulk of plant idlings taking place across the globe (though mostly in China), this has nothing to do with the coronavirus. While the outbreak has begun disrupting supply chains as the PRC attempts to keep the illness in check by barring people inside their homes, JLR said it’s stalling UK production to address falling demand and Brexit complications — the latter of which is beginning to feel like a lame excuse.
Solihull is responsible for the Jaguar F-Pace, the self-titled Range Rover, Sport and Velar. Castle Bromwich is singularly focused on Jaguar and manufactures the XE, XF and F-Type.
“The external environment remains challenging for our industry and the company is taking decisive actions to achieve the necessary operational efficiencies to safeguard long-term success,” the company explained to Reuters. “We have confirmed that Solihull and Castle Bromwich will make some minor changes to their production schedules to reflect fluctuating demand globally, whilst still meeting customer needs.”
From Reuters:
JLR posted a 2.3 [percent] drop in retail sales in the three months to the end of December and has targeted billions of pounds worth of savings to tackle falling diesel demand in Europe and a tough sales environment in China.
While the Chinese sales decline had everything to do with the economy, the coronavirus is expected to have serious ripple effects if it’s not dealt with soon. About 60 million people are still living under lockdown as the virus continues to spread, and sales and assembly in the region are expected to be heavily suppressed until the disease can be wrangled. Supply chains will also worsen, leaving companies that source components from the area in dutch.
Jaguar Land Rover parent Tata Motors has already said it believes the outbreak could negatively impact JLR’s profit margin forecast by around 3 percent this year. Considering it was in the midst of a plan to turn things around in China, and also has to contend with a difficult European market, the company already had enough to contend with.
[Image: Lutsenko_Oleksandr/Shutterstock]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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Just a daily serve of pedantry. Both of the plants mentioned are in Solihull. One is referred to workers as Lode Lane, the other Castle Brom. People in Solihull are often quick to point out they are not part of Birmingham since it is a much more salubrious municipality. Both plants are both WW2 'Shadow factories' - a absolutely incredible program of production dispersal and flexibility. Nearly all Spitfires and Lancasters were built at Castle Brom btw.
I looked at buying my first RRS and went to the local dealer to buy a SVR, $128K! Spend almost 4 hours at the dealership talk with even the GM...and no discount. The dealer really wanted MSRP for the SVR! I left! Mad!