9:58 am, August 1, 2018
JAGUAR Land Rover (JLR) has suffered its first quarterly financial loss in three years.
In the three months to the end of June, JLR recorded a pre-tax loss of £264 million, compared with a £595 million profit for the same period in 2017.
Revenues fell 6.7 per cent year-on-year to £5.2 billion.
One of the key factors affecting JLR’s performance in the three months to the end of June was the continuing ‘demonisation of diesel’ with uncertainty over Brexit also playing a part.
A third factor was the fact that wholesale buyers in China – including car dealerships – were holding off on buying stock while they waited for a cut in import duty to take effect.
The change, which was announced by the Chinese government in May and came into effect on July 1, saw tariffs on imported passenger cars in the country slashed from 25 per cent to 10 per cent in an effort to reduce trade tensions with the US.
Global sales for the brand fell five per cent in the quarter to 131,560, although retail sales direct to consumers were up 5.9 per cent to 145,510 units.
JLR’s sales in the UK rose by 3.3 per cent, but dropped 2.4 per cent in Europe.
Ralf Speth, chief executive of JLR, said the marque would have to look at reducing costs and boosting its operational efficiency and capacity in order to fight back against the downturn.
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