Change Of Jaguar And Land Rover’s Ownership Will Not Affect Ukrainian Customers
2008-03-28On March 26, 2008, Ford Motor Company officially announced acquisition of its Jaguar and Land Rover brand by Tata Motors. The contract price is $2.3 billion. Ford Motor Company aims to focus on the global development of the Ford brand and emphasizes its desire to hand the British brands over to the new owner that is able to build on the recent success and make considerable investments in their further development.
Winner Imports Ukraine, the official importer of Jaguar and Land Rover cars, has made a formal statement that the changes are not going by any means affect the Ukrainian customer.
‘Change of ownership is not going to affect the terms of car sale and service for Ukrainian customers. We do not expect any changes in quotas for Land Rover cars for Ukraine. The process of development and production, as well as the marketing policy will remain the same. The only serious change we expect is considerable investments in the British brand by Tata Motors. This will enable it to strengthen huge achievements of recent years and arrange the production of the next generation of SUV – LRX which debut made a splash at the leading world motors shows’ the Land Rover brand director in Ukraine Roman Skilskiy notices.
Ford will be following the current Jaguar and Land Rover production plan. At the same time the brands will get enough autonomy to strengthen their positions of premium car manufacturers.
Tata Motors’ management says they are willing to maintain the unique features of the brands, which they deeply respect, enabling Jaguar and Land Rover to build on their experience to strengthen the brands’ positions. In its turn, Tata Motors plans to increase financing, which will enable the brands both to follow the selected course and achieve significant growth.
‘Acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata is not going to affect the quality of cars, as they will still be produced at the UK facilities near Birmingham. The car development team will remain the same. Jaguar is entering the new era – we have recently presented the new XF in Ukraine. The quota for 2008 is 120 cars. One third of this quantity was sold before the launch. Jaguar quality speaks for itself and this will be true forever,’ Jaguar Brand Director in Ukraine Mark Parekh said.
Information. Tata Group, of which Tata Motors is part, is the best-known industrial conglomerate in India. Over 2006-2007 it reported profits of $29 billion. The company has operations in more than 80 countries and exports its products to 140 countries. It has interest in 7 business sectors: heavy industry, automotive industry and food industry; also Tata Group owns a chain of luxury hotels and deals with software and telecommunications.
Besides, Tata Group owns a range of charitable funds that participated in founding governmental research and development, scientific, medical, social and art institutions.
