Jaguar Land Rover to build sales company

According to China Business News, David smith, the global CEO of Jaguar and Land Rover marques arrived in China on November 17th, and one important mission in his trip is to carry out an inspection of JLR sales companies which will be established. At the same time the previous system of sales agents which has been implemented for 5 years will be abolished.

As UK’s luxury automobile brand, Jaguar’s products focus on high performance sedan, as well as Land Rover mainly focuses on high-end SUV. Previously owned by Ford Motor Company till March 2008, at present JLR has been acquired by India’s TATA Motors.

According to Chris Brown, the executive director of JLR in China, the establishment of sales companies will contribute to resources integration in a better way, further improvement on after-sales qualification and dealer’s services. Nevertheless, considering this action might harm the interests of agents, it will be a gradual and long-term process.

JLR has always implemented the sales agent system since it entered Chinese market in 2004. As 4s or 3s shops are the import agents for JLR, the obiligation of JLR in China is equivelent to franchisee. Currently there are 34 Jaguar auto dealers and 43 Land Rover auto dealers.

The global sales volume of Land Rover totaled 186600 units in 2008, down 17% from the same period last year, while the sales of Jaguar achieved 65000, up 8% over the same period last year. However, financial crisis has lead to a sharp drop in the global sales of JLR. According to statistics, the sales of JLR in Europe have dropped 29.1% to 70437 units for the last 10 months of this year.

In spite of that, China’s market offers great potential; where its position is gradually rising. The sales figure of JLR totaled 11108 units in 2008, up 70% over the same period last year, which was ranked fifth in the world in 2008, while this year it may climb to the third place.

Hence, JLR has decided to establish sales companies in China, bring along more products and expand sales network in order to achieve more sales. (Translator: Qinghua/serena)

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