9:18 am, January 30, 2020
JAGUAR Land Rover boss Ralf Speth is to step down in September.
The car manufacturer confirmed that the 64-year-old will leave his role at the end of his current contract after 10 years in charge, to become a non-executive vice-chairman of the business.
He was appointed chief executive when Tata bought the business from Ford.
His departure comes after a challenging period for the company, which has axed thousands of jobs in recent years after slowing sales.
Speth said: ‘I feel very honoured to have worked with so many dedicated and creative people, both inside and outside of Jaguar Land Rover.
‘We have elevated Jaguar and Land Rover. I want to say thank you for all their support and commitment.
‘We offer our customers multi-award-winning products and will continue to surprise with the best pipeline of new, innovative products we have ever had.’
He added that he was looking forward to ‘new and exciting challenges’.
A search committee has been set up to find a suitable successor.
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Motors and Tata Sons, said: ‘I want to thank Ralf for his passion and commitment over the last 10 years.
‘Ralf developed Jaguar Land Rover from a niche UK-centric manufacturer to a respected, technological-leading, global premium company.’
Over the past decade, Jaguar Land Rover has expanded its model range and into fresh markets, with new production plants in the US, China and Slovakia.
However, falling demand for diesel vehicles and sluggish demand in China has seen the business announce a strategy to cut £2.5bn of costs, leading to thousands of job losses.
MORE: Hundreds of jobs being axed at JLR’s Halewood factory
MORE: JLR sales decline worldwide but new record is set for UK
