Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has reported a profit for the three months ended 30 September 2020 (the company’s Fiscal Q2).
Jaguar Land Rover said it returned to profit with significant positive cash flow in Fiscal Q2 as sales and revenue recovered from the impact of Covid-19 in Fiscal Q1, but remain below pre-pandemic levels a year ago.
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Retail sales of 113,569 units were up 53.3% from Fiscal Q1 with almost all retailers now open. However, retail sales in most markets continued to be impacted by Covid-19 and were down 11.9% in total year-on-year. Encouragingly, JLR said China retails were up 14.6% on the prior quarter and 3.7% year-on-year while global retails of the new Defender rose to 4,508 units in the month of September.
The company posted a profit of GBP65m before tax for the quarter. Revenue was GBP4.4 billion (on wholesales of 73,451 excluding the China Joint Venture), up 52.2% from Fiscal Q1, although down 28.5% from pre-covid levels a year ago.
“We were pleased to see sales, profitability and cash flow significantly improve in Fiscal Q2 from the prior quarter,” said Adrian Mardell, JLR’s CFO. “While sales and profitability have not fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels in most markets, it was particularly encouraging to see China sales up year-on-year and global sales of the new Land Rover Defender starting to ramp up,” he said.
He also said a cost-cutting programme (‘Charge+’) also contributed significantly to the better results in the quarter and that Charge+ remains on track to deliver £2.5 billion of saving this year. “With continued strong liquidity, Jaguar Land Rover is well-placed to benefit from further market recovery in the second half and beyond,” he added.
