Jaguar plans massive dealer expansion

The arrival of the vital new Jaguar XE compact luxury sedan from August in Australia is triggering an explosion in the brand's dealer numbers beyond BMW and Audi and within reach of Mercedes-Benz.

While currently sitting at 20, the network should expand to 50 or more by 2017 if the current planning of Jaguar Land Rover Australia management pans out. Mercedes-Benz has 54 passenger vehicle dealers, BMW 42 and Audi 38.

By then Jaguar will have a significant range of new XEs on-sale here, have introduced the F-Pace crossover, the second generation XF and an updated XJ.

The expansion will start with the 50 per cent of the country's 41 Land Rover dealers who are not Jaguar dealers adding the brand, but will also include an expansion for both Jaguar and Land Rover into regional centres and some new metro outlets as well.

By 2017 Land Rover will have the Discovery Sport entrenched in the market as well as a new Discovery, the Range Rover Evoque mid-life facelift and the Evoque Cabrio.

New JLRA managing director Matthew Wiesner told motoring.com.au the expansion would mean investment in facilities and a new corporate identity (CI), but the dealer group had expressed support at a national conference in Melbourne two weeks ago.

"The JLR network is bloody strong and we have some excellent dealers that are well invested," he said. "Now it is time when a lot of new investments are going to come in – physical changes and a new CI and all that sort of stuff. So the road presence and street presence today versus where we are going is going to be significantly different.

"We have made it very clear to the whole network that we are Jaguar Land Rover not just Land Rover," he added. "So by the second half of 2016 we want every stand-alone Land Rover dealer to be a JLR dealer.

"To be fair to those guys, they are predominantly regional-type dealers, but there are still a couple of stand-alone dealers in metro areas who are going to go through the evolution. But second half 2016 – F-Pace arrives in that time and the relevance of Jaguar and the throughput of the Jaguar products means it's a sensible time to do it."

In 2014 a record 10,106 Land Rovers were sold in Australia, while Jaguar lifted slightly to sell 1167 examples. Mercedes-Benz sold over 30,000 vehicles last year, BMW nearly 23,000 and Audi almost 20,000.

But over the next few years Wiesner said he expected both JLR brands to lift in sales significantly and Jaguar's split to grow to about 30 per cent.

"Jaguar as a brand really only competed in around 9000 vehicle buyers in 2014," he said. "What XE does is lift that to 40,000. So we go from relative insignificance or very niche player to one that starts to have some decent substance to it. "

Metro points that will soon be covered by the expanding JLR network include southern Brisbane and Berwick in Melbourne's outer east.

Regional areas that can soon expect to see Jaguar presence include Shepparton and Bendigo in Victoria, Bunbury in Western Australia and Rockhampton in Queensland.

Wiesner also downplayed suggestions the expansion would trigger changes to the dealer structure, with some existing owners moving on.

"There is always a bit of evolution ... but everyone is keen to get onboard and do what needs to be done.

"But it's important that they want to do it. It's important for those who aren't a Jaguar dealer and only a Land Rover dealer to be introduced in the right way; not because you have to do it, it's because it's part of the group and you want to do it because it is an important part of the business.

"And when they see XE and when they see F-Pace and the other cars that are coming then it makes sense."