It may not be actually British anymore – sorry to have to rub it in – but I know Jaguar Land Rover is still a carmaker to be proud of. As a Dutchman I envy you Brits. All I’ve got to be proud of is Spyker. They make great looking cars, but the only way they can make a “profit” is by selling Saab assets and hiring a smart accountant to make it look good.
Jaguar Land Rover may be in Indian hands, but at least it’s making money. Recently in the news was an item about Tata’s profits being upped by its UK-based luxury brands, that means JLR. In the news today it says Land Rover is now moving to a round-the-clock production schedule, for the first time in its fifty years existence. In the past months, over a thousand new workers were hired and they’re now fully trained to run the JLR factory in Halewood in three daily shifts of eight hours each. Why are JLR doing this? Simple: to cut the time customers now have to wait for their new ride after they’ve placed their order.
Produced in Halewood are the new Evoque, of which over 88,000 have been sold since its introduction in mid-2011, and the Freelander 2. Of the latter, JLR reached the 300,000 marker earlier this year, which equates to about 50,000 units per annum on average since its presentation in 2006. I’m pretty sure the bigger chunk of Freelander sales will have been towards its earlier years of production, so they’re probably producing way fewer than 50,000 Freelanders a year today. In other words, the Evoque is booming and the one creating the need for three shifts in Halewood.
So yeah, Land Rover is doing well. The question is, should Victoria Beckham be thanked for it?
