“That’s good, because it will allow us to grow in the UK and achieve volume without doing business at any cost.

"One of our core principles is not to chase volume – all our business has to be profitable and we will resist the temptation to do deals in order to increase volume,” he stresses.

“As I said earlier, emotion played a part in my reasons for joining JLR and it continues to do so.

“Everyone is so readily available to help me interface with all the people involved in the design, product development and engineering teams to make sure we get the best cars possible.

“We will achieve our goals as we invest millions in growing the brands. We’re not today companies, we’re tomorrow companies,” he says.

Pulling the brands together

Jeremy Hicks describes his first task at Jaguar/Land Rover as pulling the brands together to form a national sales company that doesn’t detract from the integrity of either brand.

“The opportunity to lead two brands is great – it challenges the brain in different ways.

“What you won’t see happening is a merger of the brands.

“Both are loved and the cars they deliver are good. They will remain separate, but in operational terms, there are lots of synergies to be gained in back-of-house terms.”

Does this mean cutting costs?

“Definitely not. The fact is that I’m spending more money on recruiting people as we invest in growing the business and what is saved in efficiency will be invested elsewhere,” he claims.

Hicks says a dramatic reduction in warranty work as a result of higher-quality manufacturing has opened another
opportunity to fill dealer workshops with customer-paid work and prompted a renewed drive to retain customers with
cost-effective offers along with improved service plans.