Wednesday 25th July 2012

Jaguar to create 1,100 UK jobs

Recruitment drive for Castle Bromwich plant, but it's bye-bye to the Heritage Centre

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Jaguar Land Rover has announced 1,100 new jobs at its Castle Bromwich Jaguar plant as it ramps up production for future models - including the new XF Sportbrake.

It's a buoyant time for JLR, with markets in the Middle East and Asia helping it to earn record profits and sales recently. But although Land Rover is making the majority of the running in terms of growth at the moment, the new XF wagon, and new powertrains and transmissions for the XJ and XF (not to mention the forthcoming F-Type), should help push the Jaguar bit of JLR forward in the coming years.

JLR certainly seems committed to investing in the UK. "We have embarked on the most ambitious recruitment campaign in the company's history, hiring 8,000 people in the last two years," says Des Thurlby, HR Director at JLR. "We provide high quality training and development for all of our employees so this latest announcement for 1,100 jobs is great news for the West Midlands and the UK supply chain."

But while Jaguar remains loyal to its Midlands heartland, the old Browns Lane site is nearly gone altogether. Although the wood veneering is still done at Browns Lane - an activity that employs around 450 people - the Heritage Centre, which we originally reported was to close its doors in September, will shut down for the final time this weekend.

Although the 150-or-so museum pieces will still be kept by Jaguar - and it promises to keep them in the public eye as much as possible - there are no immediate plans for a new museum. Which is a bit sad, really...

[thewheelman]

Great news about more jobs in the U.K., really like the new Jag estate pictured too.

[IAJO]

sportbrake? Ha! that is all.

[Twincam16]

Excellent news - this plus the new factory in County Durham building railway locomotives, all good news for British manufacturing.

[dave stew]

IAJO said:

sportbrake? Ha! that is all.

Strange comment.

[BUG4LIFE]

I love the names manufactures use to avoid saying estate

[Tankslider]

This weekend? Bummer, haven't been, would have liked that.

[anonymous-user]

I saw an XF Sportbrake on the M50 heading towards England on Sunday. Looked great, but not very commodious. Always good to hear about things going well.

[Twincam16]

BUG4LIFE said:

I love the names manufactures use to avoid saying estate

Estate is just one umbrella term used to describe all manner of cars, though. A 'sportsbrake' is a sleek, sporting estate, moreso than a 'shooting brake', which is appointed for carrying sporting arms into the countryside. Then there's a 'station wagon', originally for carrying a whole family plus luggage to and from the railway station for their annual holidays.

Given that a Range Rover is also technically an 'estate', what's wrong with JLR differentiating and using the language of coachbuilding?

[Dimsum]

Makes perfect sense for Jaguar to Call it the Sportbrake... After all, BMW uses Touring, Audi uses Avant... Etc..

[benebob]

I don't care what you call it please send the XF Breeder buggie stateside. Oh and make it so that it has a towing capacity like the 9-10. Not sure what happened but the 11-s don't have a tow hitch available.

[clanger]

Well done Jaguar - always nice to hear good news from a British car manufacturer

[tomoleeds]

with the billions involved in the manufacture of cars,why dont jaguar spend £500k on a Jaguar visitor centre it does not have to be near the factory if there short on space,it could be open for school trips,
universty"s ,car clubs, could house the latest cars, prototypes,vintage and classics, house some of the production machinery, throw in a cafe,charge £2 adults £1 kids ,am sure would get busy

[mike325112]

I'm sure I read yesterday that a lot of the Jag fleet are now to be displayed at the Heritage Centre in Gaydon.

[mark3man]

tomoleeds said:

with the billions involved in the manufacture of cars,why dont jaguar spend £500k on a Jaguar visitor centre it does not have to be near the factory if there short on space,it could be open for school trips,
universty"s ,car clubs, could house the latest cars, prototypes,vintage and classics, house some of the production machinery, throw in a cafe,charge £2 adults £1 kids ,am sure would get busy

a) storing and showing 100 cars by spending £500,00 ? I don't think so
b) £2 for an adult ? the cost of less than a pint ? The cost of a cup of coffee ? Sadly, unless it is subsidised, that just is not viable. Coventry Museum of Transport is free - but that is a concious subsidy by the Council to help education. But running the Museum is a big annual cost.

[635csi]

It does have a tow hitch, but it can be removed and stowed in a space under the loadbay floor when not in use.
Also it has some kind of towing stability mode programme thing.
Team Sky were supported by Sport Brakes BTW

[mike325112]

mike325112 said:

I'm sure I read yesterday that a lot of the Jag fleet are now to be displayed at the Heritage Centre in Gaydon.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-18929924 and Coventry too

[XJ40]

Jolly good show.

[ewenm]

Nice good news story. The Sportbrakes looked good on the Tour de France coverage too

[NGK210]

Mr Tata and co - I salute you

[openroad]

The Heritage Motor Centre announced a couple of weeks ago that 10 of the historic Jaguars are on display at Gaydon, including: SS100. XK120, XJ13, XJ220 and others, so a fairly small proportion of the collection, but the best known.

Some years ago on one MSA Euroclassic run we visited the Autostadt museum at Wolfsburg - run by VW/Audi. This had different pavilions for the different marques that VW own: Bentley, Audi, Lamborghini etc.

Now that Gaydon is no longer closely tied to the old BL Rover Group I would personally like to see it develop in a similar way. So maybe a separate Jaguar Trust pavilion would be a good idea. Not cheap I know, but an excellent location. Near the M40, loads of parking, near to the Gaydon proving ground so close links with JLR.