Masters 2013: Halewood makes a car every 82 secs
THE success of Jaguar Land Rover’s Evoque has meant the manufacturer is now making a car every 82 seconds at its Merseyside factory to keep up with demand.
Jaguar Land Rover, owned by the Indian conglomerate Tata, scooped the North West Manufacturer award at yesterday’s Business Masters.
Richard Else, operations director at Jaguar’s Halewood plant, said the impact of the Evoque’s success had been phenomenal.
“We’re working 24 hours a day for the first time in the plant’s 50-year history. We’re making a car every 82 seconds. It’s had a massive impact, not just on Halewood, but on the supply business.”
Mr Else added that staff numbers have trebled to 4,500 since the Evoque went into production. Last year Halewood produced 100,000 Evoques, with most of them for export.
He said: “All our research and development is based in the UK and we have some fantastic engineers and products that are world-beating, and we have a skilled workforce that are proud of what they do. We make very exciting products for our customers and export them to 177 markets.”
Mr Else said half of all the Evoque models partly designed by Victoria Beckham had been sold in China. The plant also produced the 300,000th Land Rover Freelander last year which has been made there since 2006.
Runners-up in the category were Prescot-based Glen Dimplex Home Applicances and security barrier specialist ATG Access in Haydock. The sponsor of the award was law firm Weightmans.
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