Jaguar Land Rover begins to recover from £ 861million loss in 2020 Car News

Jaguar Land Rover posted a pre-tax profit of £ 534million in the first three months of 2021 before one-off charges, with boss Thierry Bolloré saying the result shows ‘significant progress’ made as part of the transformation strategy boldness of the business.

But the British automaker, owned by India’s Tata group, will record an annual loss of £ 861million for the year ended March 31, due to charges incurred as part of its cost-cutting transformation plan.

Jaguar Land Rover sold 123,483 vehicles in the first three months of 2021, up 12.4% year-over-year. It was boosted by a strong performance in China, where sales were up 127% from the same period last year, when the country was hit hardest by Covid-19 restrictions.

While total sales of 439,588 Jaguar Land Rover vehicles were down 13.6% In fiscal year 2019/2020, the firm was boosted by year-over-year growth in China and by the good performance of the new Defender, of which 45,255 units were sold during the fiscal year.

Strong results in the last quarter propelled Jaguar Land Rover’s annual pre-tax profit for the year to March 31 before one-time charges to £ 662 million. But the company incurred £ 1.5bn in one-off charges, including £ 952m in write-downs on non-cash investments and £ 534m in restructuring charges. This means the company will record an annual loss of £ 861million, compared to a loss of £ 422million for 2019/2020.

Jaguar Land Rover cited £ 332million in earnings and cash flow improvements linked to its Project Charge + restructuring plan in the last quarter, which it says brings the total saving to £ 6 billion since the launch of the program in 2018.

Bolloré said: “I have been encouraged by the resilience and the strong recovery of the company during a particularly difficult year.”

He added: “Our strategy is ambitious and it will make us more agile, efficient and sustainable. Although it is still in its early stages, we have made significant progress in its implementation. It reaffirmed my confidence that we have the right strategy, the right people and the right product plans to achieve our goals. Jaguar Land Rover is well positioned to emerge from the pandemic as a stronger, more resilient company able to navigate and take advantage of the opportunities ahead. “

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