Jaguar Land Rover’s Halewood expansion will lead to bright future

Sep 26 2009 Alistair Houghton

Land Rover LRX 300

A TOP industry analyst says Jaguar Land Rover’s decision to expand its “modern and efficient” Halewood plant will help the firm drive ahead to a bright future.

JLR said this week that it would soon start building the new LRX “baby” Range Rover at Halewood, creating 800 jobs and securing the plant’s future for at least a decade.

JLR says it will close one of its two Midlands plants, but has insisted there will be no compulsory redundancies.

Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist specialising in the auto industry at London-based BGC Partners, called Halewood a “modern, efficient and very well-invested plant with half-decent industrial relations” and said the decision to expand it was no surprise.

And he said Tata’s decision to build the LRX – which JLR says will be the most fuel-efficient Range Rover ever built – showed the group was preparing for growth once the recession ends.

He said: “This statement of intent by JLR, that is clearly supported by Tata, should be seen by all concerned as progressive.

“It’s a big step forward to carving out a long term future and growth for the company – a leap forward to what boils down to investment for JLR’s future.”

Thursday’s announcement came as a relief to workers at Halewood. JLR is about to cease production of the Jaguar X-Type, leaving just one model at the site – the Land Rover Freelander 2.