Jaguar Land Rover chief executive Sir Ralf Speth steps down this week after 10 years at the helm and he has spoken about the pain of having to cut jobs, including in Merseyside. Tony McDonough reports
Outgoing Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) chief executive Sir Ralf Speth says he felt “ashamed” at having to cut jobs at Britain’s biggest carmaker.
In a media interview ahead of his departure from the top job at JLR, Sir Ralf said the company was in the midst of a “perfect storm”. Early this year the company had started to turn its fortunes around after a slump in sales – and then COVID-19 hit.
Most of his 10 years at the helm of the company had been story of rising sales and job creation. But in 2018 JLR was hit by Brexit uncertainty, the industry fallout from the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal and downturn in sales in its key Chinese market.
In order to address the crisis, JLR launched its ‘Charge and Accelerate’ programme which delivered £2.9bn of savings and saw 4,500 axed from its global workforce, including at Halewood in Merseyside which had, at one point, employed around 4,700 people.
Despite the pain of the cuts the strategy was working as the businesses entered 2020. Sir Ralf explained: “We had turned the company around, we were very successful and on track to achieve good profitability in 2020. Then COVID arrived and changed everything. It’s a perfect storm at the moment and we are addressing all the issues.
“Overall, I am optimistic the future is even brighter for Jaguar Land Rover. We have a very young, powerful product portfolio and exciting new models on the way.”
COVID caused a shutdown of JLR three main UK factories – at Halewood and in the West Midlands – and another 1,000 jobs are going as a result of the pandemic, which has decimated auto sales across the world. On the job losses, he added: “We had to lose people to save the core of the business but I felt ashamed. It feels very personal.”
When Sir Ralf arrived at JLR from BMW, JLR in 2010 the company was struggling. But in the years that followed he grew the UK workforce from 16,000 to 40,000. At Halewood he more tripled the workforce, which in 2010 numbered just 1,500.
Key to the growth at the Merseyside plant has been the introduction of two of its fastest-selling models, the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport. Both models continue to be best sellers for the company but the Halewood workforce, currently numbering around 4,000, is likely to be cut further in the coming months.
When he steps down this week, Sir Ralf will be replaced by former Renault boss Thierry Bolloré. But his time in the UK and at JLR has had such an impact that he successfully applied for British citizenship.
His efforts in transforming the business into a global powerhouse saw him awarded a knighthood in 2019, for which he was “deeply proud and honoured”. He added: “This company was my life. It has taken over my life… Jaguar has a very good future and we have a very clear plan.”