Business secretary to meet Jaguar Land Rover bosses amid job cuts
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds is due to hold emergency meetings with the bosses of Jaguar Land Rover after it announced plans to slash 4,000 jobs.
Reynolds has spoken to PB Balaji, chief executive of Britain’s biggest carmaker, and is due to meet with the company’s leadership in the coming days.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has unveiled a sweeping voluntary redundancy programme as it looks to cut costs to deal with falling sales and the fallout from US tariffs.
Bosses of the manufacturer are due to formally announce the redundancy programme on Monday, according to the Sunday Times.
JLR directly employs 34,000 across its three UK sites and supports a further 120,000 British jobs through its supply chain.
Tata Motors, the carmaker’s Indian owner, is putting pressure on Balaji to reduce costs at the firm after being parachuted in last year to shore up its balance sheet.
JLR was forced to pause production at its factories for five weeks following a cyberattack in September last year. Donald Trump’s tariffs on UK car imports has weighed on the group’s performance in North America – its biggest market, representing 29 per cent of sales.
The manufacturer saw its revenue fall by nearly 10 per cent in the three months to June, while its pre-tax profit slumped by more than two thirds to £109m.
‘Death by a thousand cuts’
A spokesperson for JLR said: “Over the past three years, we have strengthened our House of Brands and transformed our product portfolio for the next generation.
“As we deliver the next phase of our strategy we need to adapt to evolving global market conditions while targeting approximately £1.7 billion of savings over the next two years and reduce break-evens to 300,000 vehicles.
“To achieve this, we must further simplify our organisation, improve efficiency and build greater resilience.”
A spokesperson for the government said it has already taken measures to support the UK’s car industry, including a cut to energy bills and £4bn of capital and research and development funding for zero-emission vehicles.
“We understand that this will be an uncertain and concerning time for affected workers, their families and wider communities,” they said.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, said that she will meet with Reynolds and Balaji next week. “Death by a thousand cuts has been going on under the nose of successive governments,” she said.