JLR sales dip 12% in 2019-20 as coronavirus takes toll in fourth quarter

Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on Saturday reported a 12.1 per cent decline in retail sales at 5,08,659 units for the financial year 2019-20, with the coronavirus pandemic significantly impacting offtakes in the fourth quarter.

The company's total retail sales in the fourth quarter of the previous financial year stood at 1,09,869 vehicles, down 30.9 per cent as compared with the January-March period of the financial year 2018-19, Tata Motors said in a regulatory filing.

Sales of the company were impacted across all regions, including North America, China and the UK, during the previous financial year, it added.

"2019-20 has been a year of unprecedented disruption for the automotive sector. Despite the impact of regulatory change, shifting consumer tastes, Brexit and ongoing trade tensions, sales for JLR were showing improvement until the coronavirus pandemic hit in the fourth quarter," JLR Chief Commercial Officer Felix Brautigam said.

JLR is doing whatever it can to support its communities through the current situation, he added.

"To date, this has included the deployment of more than 300 JLR vehicles around the world to organisations such as the Red Cross and other emergency services," Brautigam said.

In light of the ongoing coronavirus situation, JLR has temporarily suspended production at its facilities outside China.

In addition, the company is tightly managing all other costs and investments as well as working capital, Tata Motors said.

JLR will be reporting audited results for the financial year ended March 31 at a later date but ended this financial year with 3.6 billion pounds of cash and short-term investments and an undrawn revolving credit facility of 1.9 billion pounds, it added.