Sky News business editor Michael Wilson

So Jaguar and Land Rover will sit alongside Tetley Tea and Corus, the steelmaker formerly known as British Steel, in the colourful portfolio of Tata, the Indian conglomerate - more icons of our industrial past, sold to the industrial future.

For the 13,500 jobs directly dependent on carmaking in the Midlands and Halewood, not to mention the thousands of rivets-to-steering wheel suppliers in around the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) main plants, it’s being seen as a reprieve from the harsh reality of the incredibly difficult business of making and selling cars in the global markets.

The giant Indian company, which also makes the world’s cheapest car, has committed to the five year plan which Ford, JLR’s previous owner, had drawn up. Tata will also buy engines from Ford until 2012, which protects that production at Dagenham and Bridgend.

The immediate problem Tata faces, however, is the Jaguar itself. It’s losing money and its sales have been declining. You can read your own reviews about the cars themselves, but the saloons have clearly not dented their rivals’ business. BMW and Mercedes are clearly in the driving seat. Among many employees’ minds is a question mark over its three plants and two design centres.

For the suppliers, the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce has said this morning: ‘We have been assured that the move will not mark in influx of Indian workers to the Midlands nor will it mean work exiting to India. This is about the JLR brand being freed to do what it does best – make luxury, top-end performance vehicles.’

Well, that may be the short-term future, but I’d never bet against the incredible, and cheaper, engineering talent in India.

Tata needs to exploit its knowledge of the Asian markets as it develops its newly-purchased brands into the long-term.

Why would that be based thousands of miles away, in the Midlands and the North West?

Comments

[Richard, Gloucester 30 Mar 2008 17:37:23]

So many people talking rubbish above. I have worked my whole life in automotive toolmaking a very competitive business which you would have thought would have gone to China etc. But a word for the doom mungers above we make press tools and jigs for Honda and Toyota and our quality is so good we have even beaten the quality of Japanese tooling. Just because something is cheaper does not mean it is better, BMW knows this because it builds the mini in Oxford as Britishness is part of its sales image this is the case with Jaguar and TATA knows this and would never distroy its image by building it anywhere else apart from the UK. You would never buy a BMW built in India so why would Jaguar be any different.

[Khalid 27 Mar 2008 12:46:48]

Sir
Naturally the sale of any British logo or by-product raises concern, however, as the previous owners of such named brands are US based, I suppose one can only but blame the special relationship.
Insofar as India and its economical emergence, naturally it has risen[Akhiyon Ke Jharokhe se]as well as due to the sheer hard work of the Indian people who unlike their nearest neighbour have put religion to one side, focused upon economical stability and slowly step up the ladder as [Lata Mangehsker] did.
Nonetheless, as migratory factors have been somewhat eased, the local terrain as well as regional markets will provide all with further work whilst the new owners further their PG Tips to their most loyal of workers as a reward for festive longetivity.

[Peter Fordham, Spain 27 Mar 2008 09:00:57]

In ten years time Britain will produce nothing this is the result of a government that loves everything that is not British.

[Florida Phil 27 Mar 2008 03:42:07]

Im a Jaguar owner, I dont think my next car will be Jaguar unless the new XKR planned for 2010 is really verty special. I see BMW in my future.

[Jason Smith 26 Mar 2008 17:23:24]

We need to remember that Jaguar / Land Rover have not been owned by a British company for some time. Ford is American and it bought Land Rover from BMW (German) in 2000. It's all a fuss over nothing, and it is sad to see the Alf Garnet comments above.

[S. Tengse, Germany 26 Mar 2008 15:53:40]

What surprises me is the price paid by Tata. Is the low price Tag is a result of Ford needing cash urgently or JLR (specially Jaguar) is real loss maker.

[Bruce Hulmes 26 Mar 2008 14:08:34]

Neil Fellows.
And how will that benefit the UK?.

[T Price 26 Mar 2008 13:40:45]

Well the shortlist for my next car has definitely been narrowed down. The Freelander was my first choice, but has now been removed completely thanks to this news. It's bad enough any British firm, especially an established, flagship one, being sold to any overseas company, but to do so to one that will inevitably result substandard materials and labour being employed in construction is just unforgivable!
The developed and the third worlds are truly changing places.
Whatever happened to our national pride?

[Elizabeth Davies Cape Town 26 Mar 2008 13:26:34]

Bring back the real E-Type Jag and you will rescue Jaguar in a flash. The Mini was revived, the same could happen for the E-Type it was and is a great car.

[scott murray dundee 26 Mar 2008 13:24:07]

The end will begin for British car production when TATA bring there own workforce here to be trained in order to take it back to India in order to "remain competitive"and will blame the high wage economy in the U.K. Sounds familiar doesn,t it and yet we can do nothing about it.R.I.P. UK.

[Neil Fellows, Redditch 26 Mar 2008 12:36:06]

The next 10 years will see Chinese car production impact widely on all car makers. The new investment for Jaguar and Landrover will be welcome, but to stay competitive and finally turn Jaguar round into a profit making company, the only way forward I can see is to move all tooling, parts production, supply and construction of the cars to India, and keep design and R&D here in the UK.