Tata says UK job cuts likely at Jaguar Land Rover

London, June 27 (ANI): Tata Motors has said that more UK job cuts are likely at Jaguar Land Rover, which sent India's largest carmaker to a thumping loss for the year.

Tata Motors vice-chairman Ravi Kant said JLR global sales for the 10 months to March fell by 32 percent to 167,000 vehicles from 246,000 the previous year.

"At this moment, things are beginning to improve only marginally. There may be more job losses and more shut downs of plants if required," Sky News quoted him, as saying.

The drop-off in demand for Land Rover was blamed for sending its owner Tata to a loss of 313 million pounds after tax in the financial year to the end of March.

The shortfall was Tata Motors' first since 2001 and came after a net profit of 271 million pounds in 2007-08.

Total income across the company, which is part of the Tata Group conglomerate, was 8.9 billion pounds. Out of that, Jaguar and Land Rover accounted for 4.9 billion pounds.

Tata Motors, which last year paid 2.3 billion dollars (œ1.4bn) to buy Jaguar and Land Rover, in May posted standalone net profits for 2008-09 of 125 million dollars, down more than 50 percent from the previous year.

The company said sales across the group were hit by the global economic downturn, which saw demand and vehicle financing dry up.

"The company has actively responded to this changed situation by taking a number of urgent and long-term measures. These include cutting costs drastically and working on a plan of substantial cost reduction, aligning production with demand and tight control over cash flows," the company said in a statement.

The company launched the world's cheapest car, the Nano, at just 100,000 rupees (about œ1,250) this year. Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles are expected to be sold on the Indian market from next week. (ANI)