Ford luxury car unit Jaguar will not break even until 2007 despite job cuts, its chief executive reportedly said on Wednesday, adding losses would run into “hundreds of millions” of pounds this year.
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“There is no quick fix. It will take two or three years to stabilise this business,” Jaguar chief executive Joe Greenwell told Reuters after a parliamentary committee hearing.
Jaguar will make fewer cars in future and will focus on improving quality and profitability, he reportedly said.
Reuters noted that Ford announced plans in September to cut 1,150 Jaguar jobs as it scales back production at its Brown’s Lane plant in central England and shifts production to another factory near Birmingham.
“Will there be a climate of rigour going forward? Of course there will,” Greenwell reportedly said when asked by MPs whether there would be any more job cuts or factory closures.
Jaguar spokesman Don Hume told Reuters afterwards that Greenwell was not implying that the company envisioned eliminating more jobs. “As we stand, there are no further job cuts planned,” he said.
Reuters said unions reacted with dismay to Greenwell’s testimony. “Ford executives painted a bleak future here today,” Derek Simpson, general secretary of the Amicus union, told the news agency.
