Jaguar Land Rover takes out insurance

Jaguar and Land Rover nearly slid into the financial abyss during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).

The two traditional British car manufacturers weren't alone, but the speed with which they were offloaded by owner Ford during the GFC must have been alarming. We first reported the Indian company was shaping up for the acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover in November of 2007. Just seven months later the formal acquisition of the two British companies from Ford had taken place.

Three years on, JLR has put in one of the outstanding performances of the post-GFC landscape, anticipating a profit of £1 billion for the 2010/11 financial year.

But the lesson learned from the GFC hasn't been forgotten. Earlier this week Phil Popham, Global Director of Sales Operations for the company, outlined for the Aussie media a five-year business plan by which Jaguar Land Rover will remain financially buoyant for the foreseeable future.

It begins with an aggressive approach to product development, which should grow sales organically, but it's backed by a determination to expand into other markets where growth is untrammelled — places like Russia, China and India.

"In that five-year period it is our intention to almost double sales across the world..." said Popham, but there's a conservative aspect to the plan as well — "globalisation".

"One thing that we've learned out of the downturn is that to be successful you need to minimise your risk. Although the whole world went into recession, it did go into recession at different times...

"Any company that's got a good balance, in terms of its global footprint, can naturally hedge against risk of that economic downturn or that exchange rate volatility that we're seeing at the moment...

"If you've got a balanced portfolio of markets then you reduce that risk."

Popham says that the company plans to set itself sales and revenue targets of exposure no greater than 20 per cent in each of the six global regions in which Jaguar Land Rover operates. Land Rover is closer to achieving this ideal than Jaguar, but both companies are close.

"We have six regions — and six regional directors that look after those regions," Popham elaborated. "The UK is the home market, as we are so significant there... the rest of Europe is a region, North America, China — again, because of the size of our investment there — is a region... Asia Pacific... and then we have someone that looks after the rest of the world...

"There's some big potential in the Asia/Pacific region... so that is our vision: to not be exposed, in terms of volumes and revenues beyond about 20 per cent in those regions."

So not only is the cat going for the cream, it's redistributing its eggs in other baskets.

Read the latest Carsales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site...