Jaguar Land Rover ‘to cut 5,000 jobs in business update’

Car giant Jaguar Land Rover will announce up to 5,000 job cuts in a business update later on Thursday, according to reports.

The luxury carmaker employs 44,000 workers in the UK at sites in Halewood on Merseyside and Solihull, Castle Bromwich and Wolverhampton in the West Midlands.

Some 5,000 jobs will be cut, mainly in management, marketing and administrative roles, the BBC reported.

In October last year the car giant unveiled a £2.5 billion turnaround plan that included cost cutting after Brexit uncertainty and slowing demand in China left it nursing a hefty second-quarter loss.

The firm, owned by Indian conglomerate Tata, booked a £90 million pre-tax loss in the three months to September 30, which compared with a £385 million profit in the same period in 2017.

In China, demand was adversely impacted by consumer uncertainty following import duty changes and escalating trade tensions with the US.

In the UK, “continuing uncertainty related to Brexit” was blamed.

JLR’s figures were also dented by the introduction of European emissions standards known as WLTP, which resulted in a fall in demand for diesel cars.

At the time boss Ralf Speth said: “In the latest quarterly period, we continued to see more challenging market conditions.

“Our results were undermined by slowing demand in China, along with continued uncertainty in Europe over diesel, Brexit and the WLTP changeover.”

The firm cut 1,000 temporary contract workers at its plant in Solihull in 2017.

Thursday’s announcement is expected to include details of sales for 2018, the business outlook for this year, an update on cost savings and planned investment in UK plants.

Meanwhile Rolls-Royce Motor Cars chief executive Torsten Muller-Otvos has pledged that the carmaker will remain in Britain post-Brexit.

The commitment came as the company unveiled record sales figures, up 22% in 2018 on the previous year.