Jaguar Land Rover to cut production at two plants

Jaguar Land Rover is set to reduce production at its Castle Bromwich and Solihull factories in the coming weeks, as part of a range of cost-cutting measures introduced due to falling sales.

The British firm's sales fell by 2.3% in the final three months of 2019, although the company actually posted an increased pre-tax profit. Jaguar Land Rover has introduced a new phase of its Project Charge cost-cutting and recovery programme, with the goal to save a further £1.1 billion - bringing total cost reductions to £4bn.

According to Reuters, Jaguar Land Rover will halt production at Castle Bromwich, where the Jaguar XE, XF and F-Type are produced, on selected days over a four-week period from late February until the end of March. It will also stop production on a number of half or full days at its Solihull plant, where the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Velar and Jaguar F-Pace are built.

In a statement the company said: "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.

"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."

Jaguar Land Rover has been particularly hit by falling sales of saloon cars and diesel-powered models in recent years. While the firm did have some sales hits in the final three months of 2019 – with Range Rover Evoque sales up 30% and Discovery Sport rising 9.2% – retail sales declined for every Jaguar model.