Jaguar Land Rover turnaround accelerates in Q3

Nov 16, 2011 |

London

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The turnaround at Tata-owned carmaker Jaguar Land Rover accelerated in the July-September quarter as booming demand in China helped drive a 30 per cent rise in sales, the company announced in a statement.

The Midlands-based manufacturer said revenues rose to 2.9 billion pounds in the three months to September 30.

It benefited from strong demand for the recently launched Range Rover Evoque and a version of the Jaguar XF with a 2.2-litre diesel engine.

The company's pre-tax profits rose 9 per cent to 287 million pounds.

Retail sales in China soared by 87 during the quarter, with Range Rovers and a Jaguar XJ model with a three-litre engine proving popular among the country's burgeoning middle class.

Sales in Russia were up 6 per cent.

In the UK, retail sales were up 1 per cent as a rise in sales at Land Rover offset a fall at Jaguar.

JLR has enjoyed a dramatic turnaround in fortunes in recent years, boosted by strong demand in emerging markets.

It last week announced it would create 1,000 jobs at its factory in Solihull, near Birmingham, to support plans to launch 40 products over the next four years.

Earlier this year, the car-maker -- which employs some 21,000 workers in the Midlands and Merseyside -- said it will build a 355 million pounds engine plant in Wolverhampton that will potentially create thousands of jobs.

The company reported pre-tax profits of 1.1 billion pounds in the year to March 31, up from 14.6 million pounds the previous year.

Revenues increased 51 per cent to 9.9 billion pounds.

The results represented a turnaround from two years ago, when the company slumped to a loss as the car market collapsed amid the global economic meltdown.

Tata Motors, controlled by billionaire Ratan Tata, bought the company from Ford for 1.5 billion pounds in June, 2008.

The strong performance at JLR helped boost the performance of Tata Motors.

The group's sales rose 27 per cent to 4.5 billion pounds, while underlying profits rose 13 per cent to 337.4 million pounds.

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