It’s bad enough that a once mighty car-making country lost most of its pedigreed marques in the freeway. Rolls and Bentley have gone to the Germans, MG to the Chinese, Jaguar and the Rover to the Indians. It gets worst when the few remaining production facilities left in the wholesale just might close down. That would completely erase car making out of the country’s GNP.
There have been plans to close down the Land Rover production plant at its historic Lode Lane, Solihull site as well as the Jaguar factory at Castle Bromwich. Thousands of automotive professionals at both factories in the West Midlands were stunned when the Tata Motors Group announced last September that either Castle Bromwich or Solihull would close down its operations in the summer of 2010.
But if fate could be kinder to a country that just lost its entire automobile industry, the big bosses at Tata Motors just might have a change of heart. The new regime head at Jaguar Land Rover Ralf Speth as well as the Tata Motors head Carl-Peter Forster have reviewed their initial strategic plans with an eye to keeping both sites alive.
A source quite close to JLR senior management intimated that “One of the options now is not to close either of them. There is a new strategy now being developed – it is a completely new ball game. It has now gone back from ‘there will be a plant closure.’ They are looking at it again.”
That should calm the nerves of unions in both plants as they’ve opposed any effort to seal the plants that will surely displace thousands of their members and have shunned any discussion on the earlier closure plans.
The JLR source has also disclosed that upcoming 2010 vehicle models for Jaguar and Land Rover could guarantee the futures of both Solihull and Castle Bromwich factories. “That is now a very real possibility.”
The review at JLR follows the installation of a new Tata Motors Group CEO, Carl-Peter Forster formerly based in Mumbai and the new Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth based in Gaydon. The earlier closure threat was announced under the old regime of David Smith at JLR who was replaced in a management shuffle last January.
Sales revenues at the Jaguar Land Rover have enjoyed a 60% increase in February amidst a worldwide recession which most pundits see lifting anytime soon. The Tata Motors Group also announced some £38.7 million in after-tax profits just for the last 2009 fiscal quarter alone after previous quarters mired in the red.
A JLR spokesman said: “We said back in September we would go through a process and make a decision in the middle of the year. As you would expect our new CEOs are studying our business and looking at our plans closely.”
He further added that the September Business Plan remains in force though given a review by the new regime. Workers at both West Midlands plants are crossing their fingers a new business plan out soon will be kinder to them.
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