Results tagged “jaguar” from Birmingham Post - Business Blog

Ford's imminent announcement of a sale of Jaguar and Land Rover (expected next week) to Tata is welcome news and comes as no surprise.

Tata is a huge Indian conglomerate with a turnover getting on for $22 billion. Its deep pockets have allowed it to outbid rivals constrained by the recent credit crunch.

Ford are flogging off some prize assets after a record $12 billion loss in 2006 and a downward spiral of sales of gas guzzling SUVs and pick-up trucks in the US prompted by the high price of oil.

Indeed, Ford's US sales were down by some 12% last year and Toyota has just replaced it as the number 2 producer in the US for the first time.

To its credit, Ford has invested heavily in both Jaguar and Land Rover. Yet it lost lots of money.

Partly this is down to exchange rates, with sterling at a twenty five year high against the dollar of over $2. This has made selling to the key US market very difficult and has impacted badly on Jaguar sales there.

This wasn't helped by Ford's inability to understand the European luxury car market.

I spend much of working life trying to keep track of two key strands to the industrial and financial life of this country.

Wearing my Birmingham Post automotive correspondent's hat I report on a manufacturing sector that, despite what the cynics and doom-mongers say, is still a vital element of the manufacturing base both of the West Midlands and the UK as a whole as well as the regional and national economy.

There are some out there who simply cannot understand why Britain is still making motor cars in the 21st century.

Yes, we have lost Longbridge, Ryton and Browns Lane as major carmaking sites. But Jaguar and Land Rover (albeit perhaps soon in Indian ownership) remain at the heart of the industry.