JLR’s Speth talks up growth, but warns on skills
AN UPBEAT Dr Ralf Speth has marked his 100th day as CEO of Jaguar Land Rover by telling TheBusinessDesk.com of his ambitious growth plans for the car maker.
But the German-born veteran of senior roles across the automotive industry also warned that the UK’s shortage of workers with advanced manufacturing skills needed to be a priority issue for the new Government, or the car maker’s ambitions could be thwarted.
Speaking the week after results from parent Tata Motors revealed that JLR had enjoyed a second quarter of increased sales, Dr Speth said: “Restructuring is on track. We’re back in the black and have sound financial basis to develop our programmes even more, and get on with growth.”
Customers could look forward to a vastly increased range of engine options and trim levels across all JLR models, he said, as the manufacturer became increasingly aggressive with its product development programme in the UK and abroad.
“It’s crucially important to have smaller engine ranges in our product plans,” he said. “With smaller engines, further derivatives, new and additional products we have great opportunities to create a powerful brand approach that’s already going in the right direction.” On rumours of a reborn F-type sports model, Dr Speth said: “We will think about a sports car and give the motoring writers something to really talk about.”
He described the new ‘compact’ Range Rover, due to be produced at the JLR plant at Halewood as “an unbelievably hot car. I personally hope demand for this will really take off globally and that we can look forward to production volumes exploding.”
“We have far more opportunities than just overtaking our 2007 production volumes – we have far more potential. Growth in many more directions is our plan.”
“By growth I mean not only for JLR – it’s growth for our suppliers, the whole area, the region and also the UK. We spend in excess of £1billion for R&D, in excess of £3billion for production material and £600m for manufacturing in the UK. We export more than £6billion of product, making JLR an unbelievably powerful company, with 16,000 people employed directly and a total of 130,000 in the whole production chain and dealer network.
“This is a huge obligation and we want to make the best decisions for everybody. But these products have to be profitable, and our growth funds have to come out of cash flow. We need new materials, we need new technologies, and we need innovation. Innovation comes out of universities and comes out of suppliers.
“If you think about engineering we have the steepest hill in front of us because we have to develop the new product. It’s a workload that our R&D department has never had and in that context we need further support.
“We are not a company of 6m cars like Toyota or VW – they have drawers full of innovation and ideas. We can’t compete here, and therefore we need joint approaches and the help of everyone from academia, industry and suppliers. Together we can really make a difference.
“We have had discussions with the new coalition Government and what we hear now is very refreshing. We have scheduled another meeting because it’s very important to see a joint approach.
“If I have to hire particular skills I cant find them. We don’t have the right skills base. Where do you find skills in electronics? The most expensive parts in our cars is the electronic architecture but we can’t find the people. We need from Government an approach to change the perception of engineering and manufacturing in society. Government can help and together we make a difference.”
Dr Speth said plans to close either the Castle Bromwich or the Lode Lane plant in the West Midlands were on track, and a decision would be announced this year after the company’s product plans had been finalised.
