For the first time in more than 50 years, Jaguar Land Rover’s Halewood factory will now work around the clock to meet demand for the Range Rover Evoque. Yes, that is the sound of Tata and the Jaguar-Land Rover Group hitting a homerun straight out the park and maybe a few cash register ‘ka-chings’ as well.
The 4 500-strong workforce at Halewood in the UK will now work around the clock to meet the worldwide demand of this runaway success for Jaguar Land Rover. Since its launch in July 2011, the Range Rover Evoque has sold 88 000 units in 170 markets, making it arguably more of a worldwide hit than the Defender. Don’t forget too, that the Defender had most of the 20th century to spread to every corner of the globe. The Range Rover Evoque has done so in just over a year.
Jaguar Land Rover had to conduct a recruitment campaign six months ago to hire the extra 1 000 staff needed to bump production up to 24 hours shifts. Both the Range Rover Evoque and updated Land Rover Freelander 2 are built in Halewood. 24-hour shifts means Halewood has had to add a new night shift, which begins at 21h30 each evening.
The size of the Jaguar Land Rover workforce is now at its highest in 20 years and a spokesman from the company said they received more than 30 000 applications for the 1 000 new roles they needed filling. Jaguar Land Rover currently employs nearly 24 000 people.
