Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has announced plans to offer voluntary redundancies to staff as the automotive giant struggles with a significant slump in profits. The company, a subsidiary of the Indian conglomerate Tata Motors, is aiming to secure approximately £1.7bn in savings over the next two years. While the exact number of departures remains unconfirmed, reports suggest as many as 4,000 positions could be eliminated during this period.
The redundancy program is currently being extended to salaried and management personnel. This development arrives as the manufacturer faces a challenging financial landscape, with pre-tax profits plummeting to £14m from £2.5bn the previous year. A major cyber-attack, which halted production for several weeks, resulted in a 27% drop in output and cost the firm roughly £200m. These losses were further compounded by US import tariffs, which were initially raised to 25% by Donald Trump before a 10% deal was reached for the UK, disrupting the company’s strategy to expand its luxury vehicle presence in the American market.
The impact of these setbacks is reflected in sales figures, with retail and wholesale volumes falling by 70,000 and 90,000 units respectively. Chief executive PB Balaji noted in the company’s May annual report that these specific hurdles were exacerbated by broader industry pressures, including cost inflation, cooling demand for electric vehicles, and deteriorating market conditions in China.
With 30,000 of its 44,000-strong global workforce based in the UK—primarily across 14 West Midlands plants—the potential job losses present a significant challenge for Prime Minister Andy Burnham. Burnham has previously committed to reindustrializing Britain and the need to “safeguard sovereign manufacturing.”
In response to the crisis, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds are scheduled to meet with Balaji next week to discuss efforts to mitigate the impact on the workforce. The government previously supported the firm under Keir Starmer’s administration, which pledged a £1.5bn loan guarantee following the cyber-attack. Despite the current austerity measures, JLR continues to pivot toward electrification, recently launching its first electric Range Rover with a starting price of £154,070. The report also notes that as many as 4,000 jobs would be cut over two years, the Times reported. The report also notes that which is owned by the Indian conglomerate Tata Motors, needed to save about £1.7bn over the next two years, jLR told the BBC it was yet to confirm the number but the company. The report also notes that where the company is one of the region’s largest employers, most of them work at 14 plants across the West Midlands.
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