Due to slower world economic growth and therefore the numbers of new cars being bought, Land Rover is to reduce production by one day a week. The company has said that it will make their flagship Land Rovers and Discovery vehicles on only four days a week – between Monday and Thursday.
Interestingly, production changes will happen immediately, with some night shifts to be suspended in October. That’s quite unusual, unless this is something that they have been planning for a while. Then again, I do recall there was a prediction that the economy was due to pick up by now.
Thankfully for the workers at the production plant in Solihull (West Midlands) there are to be no redundancies – however one could imagine that will change if demand continues to decline – with the only real way to bring it back up again is a surge in the economy.
Earlier in the year, Tata (an Indian car maker) bought Land Rover and Jaguar from Ford. A spokesperson went on record to state that it was really a “very small cut” in production. Numbers haven’t been released but a whole day doesn’t sound particularly small to me. Nonetheless, they also did admit that there were “very challenging” conditions in the UK and US at the moment.
Sales continue apace in other territories such as Russia, Brazil and Australia.
I personally have a couple of suggestions for Land Rover. The first is to slash the price of their middle range Land Rovers (i.e. the one most commonly bought). People aren’t buying at the moment because they haven’t got a lot of spare cash – however for those in the market, this sort of price reduction could see the difference between them buying a Land Rover and another brand.
The second suggestion I’d have for Land Rover to go back up to production levels is to continue showing off the brand – what it stands for, what the cars are good for, why you need one over any other car. In light of today’s crossover and fake SUV’s with only 2 wheel drive, this approach could really do well. So guys, get on with it. Evangelise about your brand – after all it has some serious historic significance!
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