Tata Jaguar seeks 198 voluntary redundancies

London, Oct 17 (IANS) Jaguar Land Rover, owned by Tata Motors, is looking for 198 voluntary redundancies at three factories in central and northwest England, a company spokesperson has said.

Jaguar Land Rover, which employees 15,000 people in Britain, said it would seek to shed the staff in its Halewood, Solihull and Castle Bromwich plants.

A spokesperson for the carmaker said the move was part of an 'ongoing drive to improve efficiency', and that similar cuts had been made in previous years.

'It's obviously a pretty low-key programme. It's something we've essentially done in some way over the last several years at this time of year as part of our ongoing drive to improve operational efficiencies," Don Hume said.

'It is a small redundancy programme and it affects 198 staff across all our manufacturing sites,' Hume was quoted as saying in the Coventry Telegraph Friday. 'It's not really connected to the economic downturn.'

The announcement comes days after figures revealed a slump in Land Rover sales in September although Jaguar bucked the trend with an increase in registrations of 3.5 percent for the month.

'That mirrors what's been happening for Jaguar through the year so far, primarily driven by the success of the XF,' Hume said, referring to the Jaguar XF model.

He said Jaguar's global sales up to September this year are 12.9 percent ahead of 2007 figures.