11:53 am, August 31, 2022
Jaguar has admitted it is planning on opening a ‘small number’ of its own stores as it looks to reposition the brand ahead of a relaunch in 2025.
Jaguar dealers expressed concern after a job advert posted by the manufacturer suggested it could be planning its own global network of dealerships.
The role for ‘Head of Global Retail Operations’ was posted online by Jaguar Land Rover with a closing date for applications of September 13.
There appear to have been 123 applications for the post via LinkedIn.
The British car manufacturer has now admitted to Car Dealer that it is planning on opening a small number of dealerships that it will run itself.
A spokesman for Jaguar said: ‘Jaguar will open a relatively small number of its brand stores globally as we start repositioning the brand ahead of the launch in 2025.
‘These brand stores will be strategically located in areas with a high concentration of target clients and in luxury retail environments designed for our clients to immerse themselves in experiences they cannot have via our digital channels.
‘By building the Jaguar brand all agents will benefit.
‘Clients will be able to experience the brand at an agent, at a centrally located brand store or online as they wish.’
It hasn’t confirmed yet if any of these will be in the UK.
The admission comes after rumours began to swirl following the job advert surfacing online.
The description in it said the candidate would need to be responsible for ‘supporting the roll-out, operation and consistently high performance of a global network of owned stores’.
It added that this is part of an ‘omni-channel, luxury client experience’ and that its aim is to ‘completely change… the automotive buying/ownership experience’.
Several existing Jaguar dealers contacted Car Dealer to express their concern at the move.
One said: ‘If this is what it looks like – Jaguar setting up its own dealerships to compete with us – then it’s disgusting.
‘We’ve been asked to invest millions of pounds into Arch Concept dealerships and this looks like they’re going to do it themselves.
‘The first the network has heard about this is this job advert doing the rounds. Many dealers I’ve spoken to are worried about it.’
The Jaguar job advert was posted on LinkedIn
The advert said the candidate needs to have ‘retail operations expertise’ and to have experience of the ‘shop floor’.
It also requires the successful applicant to have ‘knowledge/awareness of key legal requirements relating to store operations’.
And it says the role will see the new team member ‘support new store openings by coaching and training in-market senior retail teams to be able to support their teams with delivery of the retail vision’.
Jaguar has told its dealers that it plans to move to an agency-style agreement for car sales in the future. These see sales made on the manufacturer website and dealers paid a fee to facilitate the handovers.
‘We haven’t been told anything about a manufacturer-owned dealer network as part of that plan, though,’ said the Jaguar dealer, who wished to remain anonymous.
Jim Holder, editorial director at Haymarket Automotive, publisher of Autocar and What Car?, added: ‘The growing frustration of dealers is completely understandable, especially those that represent and have invested in brands like Jaguar that have promised much, but delivered little.
‘But the direction of the industry is clear – agency models in many forms, which give manufacturers more control of the sales process and proceeds from it, are an inevitability.
‘What isn’t inevitable is the success of these models. Here, the dealers must hold their nerve; if they truly do deliver best-in-class sales processes that can’t be replicated they will, in time, win through.’
Updated with Jaguar comment: 12:20, August 31
