Jaguar Land Rover says frictionless trade and free movement of labour is key to a post-Brexit environment in the UK.
Britain is currently in the throes of a general election, which takes place on 12 December, with Brexit forming a major battle ground between all the major political parties.
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Some would argue Brexit indecision has to a certain extent paralysed the UK for the past three and half years since a narrow majority voted to leave the European Union (EU), but for JLR, trade and labour issues remain paramount should the UK finally leave Brussels on 31 January next year.
“At the moment, the most difficult aspect about Brexit is understanding what will apply,” said JLR Global STA director, Body Engineering, Special Vehicle Operations & European Operations, Paul Goff at the recent Central & Eastern European Automotive Forum organised by Adam Smith Conferences in Budapest.
“From our point of view it is very important any future post-Brexit deal results in frictionless trade between the UK and the EU – we are present in both. We are absolutely committed to the UK, it is really important we have frictionless trade. Also access to the labour markets.
“The ability to freely move is really important – it is really important to us that continues alongside frictionless trade.”
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By GlobalDataThe importance of that frictionless trade environment is borne out by JLR’s manufacture of its Defender at the Nitra plant in Slovakia, as part of its global expansion strategy following the opening of its Chinese joint venture in 2014 and Brazilian plant in 2016, supported by contract manufacturing in India from 2011 and Austria from 2017.
“In the case of JLR Nitra and in the supply base, we made that decision before the Brexit referendum,” added Goff. “That decision was part of a global expansion strategy.
“We had been evaluating different options. Long before the Brexit referendum, Nitra was part of our strategy.
“In Nitra we have a relatively young team. We opened less than three years ago and the launch of the new Defender is the first. That is really stressful. We are putting a lot of emphasis into how do we prepare people for the reality of that.”
Jaguar Land Rover currently employs around 1,500 people in Nitra: 98% are Slovak nationals and 30% women. Last November, JLR launched its second phase of local recruitment, looking for an additional 850 people to join the Nitra team.
Goff also stressed the unpredictable nature of manufacturing at the Budapest conference, noting volatility is the “new normal” and urging employees to be proactive in dealing with challenges.
“What we ask people to do is understand, drive and govern individual inputs,” said Goff. “In manufacturing, we like to be process driven – that reality is over – volatility is the new normal. We have to adapt a mindset.
“We will all work in parallel. I bang on about this to my team; decouple, decouple, decouple, there is always something you can do now. That is the mentality I ask. We are driving how do we better share information, operate as a community and share that across the business.
“We have been through a massive period of growth. Ten per cent of our organisation today has [been] in the business since 2008. I don’t have people who built up 5-10-15-20 year relationships with each other. Just building that knowledge base is a huge part.
“We do need to understand what are the critical inputs – don’t wait for the input to be completely finished and perfect.”
