George S. May Business Blog

Jaguar Land Rover CEO David Smith departs

Jaguar Land Rover CEO David Smith has left the British carmaker. A spokesman for the company would not elaborate as to why, all we know at this point is that the vice chairman, Ravi Kant, will assume the duties on an interim basis.

Quite a short run for Mr. Smith, who took over as CEO in 2008 after the company was bought by Indian carmaker, Tata. Not the best foot to start on, Tata paid over $2 billion and has been losing money on Jaguar Land Rover since.

In November, Tata said the unit lost 60 million pounds ($96.6 million) during the quarter ending on Sept. 30. Jaguar Land Rover has been desperately trying to save the company by cutting about 2,500 jobs in the past year, freezing pay, cancelling bonuses, and finally announcing in September that the company would be shutting down one of its factories in England.

However, not all hope is lost for the carmaker. Although they have struggled to turn a profit, sales have actually held up rather well. Sales in the U.K., its biggest market, rose 34.2 percent in the September quarter to 14,400 vehicles and sales in China jumped 2.1 percent to 3,400 vehicles.

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