Paul Melhuish will assume responsibility for Land Rover SA and Jaguar SA as the Premier Automotive Group restructures its operations to improve co-operation between divisions.
The Premier Automotive Group (PAG) in South Africa has restructured its operations to improve efficiency and co-operation between the Land Rover and Jaguar divisions.
This move will bring the South African subsidiary of PAG in alignment with the Land Rover and Jaguar business units in the United Kingdom.
Moira Moses, managing director of The Premier Automotive Group, this week said: “We have developed a structure which will allow us to more effectively support our PAG brands and to have our brands work together on non-brand specific opportunities.”
As a result of the restructure Paul Melhuish, who was the managing director for Land Rover South Africa, will assume responsibility for Land Rover SA and Jaguar SA.
“Both Land Rover and Jaguar have a strong heritage and are well established British brands. Our priority will be to ensure each brand maintains its own image and core marque values. There are, however, huge opportunities to combine efforts on existing processes within our current structures,” he said.
PAG’s divisions will seek to co-ordinate powertrain development programmes to ensure long-term strategic competitiveness. Powertrain applications, though, will continue to be brand specific.
There will also be “a far closer integration” of vehicle and component test facilities and the joint development of the latest virtual and analytical modelling techniques. This, a PAG spokesman said, was a continuation of the process that started when Jaguar and Aston Martin began to share Land Rover’s test track at Gaydon some months ago.
Land Rover and Jaguar have plans to expand their product ranges over the next few years and this was expected to result in significant volume growth.
”To enable the brands to realize their full potential, it is important that maximum advantage is taken of the skills and expertise that exist within the British-based companies in the Premier Automotive Group,” a PAG spokesman said.
The brands will remain autonomous in mainstream brand specific areas such as product design, new product programme development and management, manufacturing and marketing.