Jaguar Land Rover's (JLR) new Global Headquarters at the Company's site in Whitley in Coventry was today opened by Mr Ratan Tata Chairman of Tata Sons, Mr Ravi Kant, Vice President of Tata Motors and Dr. Ralf Speth, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover.
The Global Headquarters building which is adjacent to the company's Whitley Engineering Centre is home to JLR's Executive Committee Members and a number of corporate staff.
The opening of the new building is the first major step towards JLR delivering on its desire to consolidate its engineering and corporate operations across its two sites in Coventry and Gaydon. Both sites are vital for the continued prosperity of the JLR business and its iconic brands and this move will ensure the company has the right foundations to deliver upon its ambitious growth plans.
Dr Speth, Mr Tata, and Mr Kant were also joined by local dignitaries representing the City of Coventry. Commenting on the event Dr Speth said: "The opening of this building signifies a new chapter in the Jaguar Land Rover story. We are embarking on our most ambitious product creation programme which will see us invest more than £1.5 billion pounds annually for the next five years. To support these plans we are also investing heavily in innovation, people and of course infrastructure at all of our sites and Whitley is no exception."
He continued: "Whitley will over the coming months, become the centre of our businesses global operations as key corporate functions from finance and purchasing to marketing and HR move across to the site from our R&D centre at Gaydon thus allowing us to create a leading advanced engineering centre for the development of new, innovative and exciting products for the future."
The transition of staff between Whitley and Gaydon is ongoing following a multi million pound redevelopment programme at the two sites. This also comes as JLR announced plans to redevelop its advanced manufacturing plant at Solihull to support its stated growth ambitions.