Fiscal first quarter results from Tata Motors today showed that the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) business acquired in mid-2008 was firmly back in profit.
Helped by favourable US$-EUR currency movement in the quarter, JLR reported profit before tax of GBP233.8m compared with a GBP62m loss in Q1 fiscal 2009/10.
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“With the positive market reception of the enhanced product range in an improved market environment as well as continued cost reduction efforts, the business was able to show sustained quarter on quarter improvement towards solid profitability in the quarter,” Tata said.
Q1 JLR wholesale volume was 57,153 units compared to 35,947 units a year ago. Retail sales “improved favourably in the quarter, on the back of continued overwhelming response for Land Rover products and the newly launched XJ. There was a strong recovery across all the regions, with China standing out registering a growth of 104%,” Tata added.
The entire Tata Motors Group also returned to profit in the first quarter. Consolidated profit before tax was INR22.75bn (GBP309.6m), compared to a pretax loss of INR2.7bn (GBP36.7m) for the corresponding quarter last year, on consolidated revenues up 64.2% to INR270.6bn (GBP3.7bn).
The volume of passenger vehicles, including Fiat, Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles distributed in India, grew 56% in the domestic market to 77,858 units. The market share for Tata passenger vehicles was 13.3% compared to 11.2% in Q1 FY2009/10.
