No bailout for Jaguar Land Rover amid plans for job cuts

 Asked if there could be financial support to protect jobs, UK's business secretary said 'Not if it's to bail people out'.

Jaguar Land Rover, the UK’s largest car maker, is believed to be cutting about 4,000 jobs. (JLR Media pic)

LONDON:

Britain’s business secretary has said there will be no bailout for Jaguar Land Rover amid reports that the UK’s largest car manufacturer is to cut 4,000 jobs.

The firm is expected to formally announce a major redundancy programme on Monday, with job losses to be spread over two years, according to The Times, PA Media reported.

JLR confirmed in a statement that it is opening a voluntary redundancy programme offering salaried and management team members the opportunity to leave the business.

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said he had spoken to JLR chief executive PB Balaji and will meet the firm’s leadership team early next week. “Of course you want to mitigate any job losses,” he told the BBC.

However, when asked if there could be financial support to protect those jobs, he added: “Not if it’s to bail people out. If it’s about long-term investment in the future, we do invest alongside industry on that.”

JLR continues its recovery from a major cyberattack that forced it to halt production last year. The company employs about 30,000 people across the UK and makes most of its cars in factories in the country. It said it was targeting approximately £1.7 billion (US$2.2 billion) of savings over the next two years and reduce break-evens to 300,000 vehicles.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Death by a thousand cuts has been going on under the nose of successive governments.” She said years of under-investment, unsustainable zero-emission mandates and high industrial energy costs were crippling the industry.

JLR revealed last month that revenues fell by 9.6% to £6 billion for the three months to June 30, driven by a 9.2% decline in car volumes.

The company briefly paused production for its Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models at its Solihull plant in March after a major fire at the factory of a component manufacturer in Norway. Jaguar also stopped the production of numerous diesel and petrol-run models, including its F-Pace to shift its focus to electric models.  - FMT