Mumbai: Tata Motors’ UK-based subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on Friday reported a 6 percent decline in retail sales last year as compared to 2018. The luxury carmaker, however, logged a 1.3 percent increase in retail sales for December 2019 over the previous year.
JLR’s retail sales stood at 557,706, down 5.9 percent compared to 2018 owing to “challenging industry conditions across markets”. Its sales were down 1.7 percent in the UK, 13.5 percent in China, 4.9 percent in Europe and 14.2 percent in overseas regions, Tata Motors said in a regulatory filing.
The company said that the double-digit sales growth in China over the last six months has been encouraging, as has been the record sales achieved in North America, up 1.8 percent.
“Following a record 2018, Jaguar sales were down in 2019. In increasingly challenging market conditions, we chose not to weaken the iconic Jaguar brand through chasing volume at any cost,” said Felix Brautigam, it’s Chief Commercial Officer.
For the month of December, Jaguar Land Rover said its retail sales were boosted by China, up 26.3 percent year-on-year but offset by lower sales in North America and Europe. On a quarterly basis, JLR’S retail sales were 141,222, down 2.3 percent year-on-year.
Tata Motors closed 1.17 percent higher at Rs 194.25 a share on the NSE.
