JLR to hire 2,000 in 2 years

Tatas-owned Jaguar Land Rover said on Friday it will hire over 2,000 people within next two years to increase its headcount by over 11 per cent globally across different positions.

The company plans to induct 400 people during this year in UK alone and has already started the process to recruit 280 graduates in different verticals.

"Jaguar Land Rover currently employs 18,000 people globally and this will increase to more than 20,000 by 2012," the company said.

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Earlier, hit by the global economic crisis and a slump in the auto industry, the company's production had declined drastically and it laid off 2,500 workers after Tata Motors acquired it from Ford in 2008.

Pays of JLR employees were frozen and bonuses cancelled for others in that period.

The company has recently added 1,500 new staff at Land Rover's Halewood manufacturing facility in Merseyside to produce the new Range Rover Evoque that will be launched this year, it said.

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"In 2011, the business expects to hire around 400 people in the UK," JLR said, adding it had recruited over 330 people last year in the country.

The company has received more than 6,500 applications for the 280 positions for graduates to be added in 2011 to support a multi-billion pounds investment plan for new products.

"For 2011, the 280 graduates will be hired for a variety of roles across the business -- from product development engineering, manufacturing, finance, human resources, marketing, IT and purchasing," it added.

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Although the company did not elaborate its plan on how much investment would be made in new product development, Tata Motors had last week announced to pump in Euro1 billion (over Rs 6,100 crore) in JLR.

"Our plans over the next few years will see us spending billions of pounds to research and develop exciting new products and technologies. This investment will secure JLR's position as an innovative, world-class manufacturer of luxury vehicles," JLR director (human resource) Des Thurlby said.

Besides the Range Rover Evoque, Land Rover's first diesel hybrid sports utility vehicle will hit the roads by 2013.

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Last year, Jaguar had unveiled a electric concept car that can run 900 km in a single charge with a top speed of 320 km per hour.

The JLR business continued to show strong profitability with healthy volumes in October-December period last year with a profit after tax of Rs 1,958 crore (Rs 19.58 billion).

In September 2009, with the global economic recovery on the horizon, JLR had announced a decade-long new business strategy that would see 800 million pounds (over Rs 6,200 crore) investment going for developing eco-friendly products.