Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), the completely owned subsidiary of Tata Motors, was on the verge of bankruptcy just three years ago and had the Indian auto maker not saved the British ship from sinking, the iconic brand could have plundered into a dark oblivion. Tata Motors bought the majority share holding of the Jaguar Land Rover for a sum of £ 1.1billion in 2008 and the auto industry witnessed one of the biggest turn around in the history.
Post the takeover by Tata Motors, JLR recorded their best ever annual sales in the global auto market with a majority of sales coming from the previously unanticipated emerging pockets of the world like Asian region like China. Many of the rich Chinese automotive enthusiasts have piled on their personal fortunes by exporting cheap consumer goods to the world markets, but they themselves love to indulge in driving premium luxury vehicles from the world renowned automotive brands operating in the country. Interestingly, some 1.4 millionaires opted for the premium automotive brands like Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Jaguar, Land Rover and Ferrari among others, for filling their personal garages and seldom even look at the cheaper alternatives.
Reportedly, the British luxury marque, Rolls-Royce has found the car enthusiasts of China to be its biggest clientele across the globe, besides the Chinese automotive market has overtaken the UK and US markets in terms of annual sales. Interestingly, the sales of Bentley cars in the Chinese auto market has evenly matched even those of US market and is believed to glide past in the next year. However, Rolls-Royce and Bentley manufacture only few thousand vehicles every year and the Tata owned JLR definitely has an upper hand in terms of annual production towards consolidating its position on China turf.
Interestingly, Jaguar Land Rover has witnessed a great new surge in demand for its luxury SUVs and saloons in 2011. The Chinese car enthusiasts seems to have been smitten with the premium SUV Range Rover that was launched around mid August 2012, and boasts of sublime exterior and interior finishes conforming with the taste of the world's most populated country. Further, the Chinese driving conditions are very awkward for dainty vehicles and hence, the strongly built Range Rover attracted such an enormous reception in the Chinese auto market.
Reportedly, JLR sold just 431 vehicles in Chinese domain during 2003, while the company registered sales of 51,000 units in the financial year 2011-12, experiencing an increase of 76 per cent from the fiscal of 2010-11. The unbelievable turn around came from a company, which almost filed for bankruptcy and appealed the government for a bail out, just three years ago in 2008-09. Hence, had it not been the Asian countries like India that dispensed the money and China that provided the market, JLR fortunes could have dwindled into a ditch.
