Kolkata, Jul 31 (UNI) The Covid-19 pandemic continued to significantly impact the business in Q1FY21 with retail unit sales down 42.4% year-on-year.
However, monthly sales improved during the quarter across all regions as economies re-opened, with June sales down 24.9%.
About 98% of Jaguar Land Rover’s retailers worldwide are now fully or partially open and all the company’s plants have resumed manufacturing, except for the Castle Bromwich facility, which will gradually restart from 10th August.
Revenue was £2.9b in the quarter and the company made a pre-tax loss of £413m. However, this was only down £18m year-on-year and the EBITDA margin was 3.5% with £500m of Charge+ cost actions substantially offsetting the lower sales.
Free cash flow was negative £1.5b, primarily reflecting a one-time working capital outflow of £1.1b. Reassuringly, the Chery Jaguar Land Rover Joint Venture in China achieved break-even profits in the quarter.
Overall, these results were better than expected with total cost and cash flow improvements of £1.2b realised in the quarter from the Charge+ program.
The company successfully completed about £650m of new funding and ended the quarter with solid liquidity of £4.7b including £2.75b of cash and short-term investments and £1.9b undrawn revolving credit facility.
UNI XC-AND