JAGUAR’S EGAN YEARS
It’s 40 years since Jaguar was privatised after Sir John Egan turned its fortunes around. Keith Adams recounts how the dynamic boss saved the marque and transformed it into a British success story
JAGUAR ON THE ROPES
You need to rewind back to the late Seventies to understand the scale of Sir John Egan’s success in making Jaguar attractive enough to be put up for sale in 1984. Ensconced within British Leyland – and before that BMC as the group’s flagship brand since 1966 – the once proudly independent Jaguar had two offerings (excluding the Daimler DS420 limousine) – the XJ saloon and XJ-S coupé.
Sales of the latter were disappointing despite its potential to revolutionise the super coupé market with its V12 engine, dramatic proportions and bargain pricing. Meanwhile, the firm’s XJ saloon was doing the heavy lifting and struggling despite being regarded as being one of world’s best cars. In true British Leyland tradition, quality control and regular strikes were punctuating production.
The company’s reputation had been heading downhill throughout the Seventies. Bob Knight took the helm and was spending most of the time protecting Jaguar as best he could as BL’s management sought to keep the group alive in the wake of the government bailout of 1974. The XJ40 had been in development since 1973 but was going nowhere, leaving Knight to fight many fires.
The Labour government chose BL’s new chairman and chief executive Sir Michael Edwardes to sort the mess out in November 1977. His internal re-organisation of the firm gained Jaguar more autonomy, with Bob Knight now managing director. The timing couldn’t have been better – that year, it produced 23,688 cars – a poor performance when compared with the company’s best (at that point) figure of 32,589 in 1971. The firm still had potential, however.
The turnaround began when the XJ Series III – more appealing and modern-looking than the Series II – was introduced in 1979. Bob Knight pushed suppliers to up the quality of their components but there were still problems that needed addressing at the AustinMorris Castle Bromwich body plant.
As Bob Knight recalled: ‘In the 12 months following the introduction of Series III, we only got 40 per cent of the production we needed, due to Castle Bromwich problems. In the end we were so desperate that we would take anything that was roughly the right shape.’ No wonder Jaguar production slumped to 14,861 units – the worst since 1957.
The political landscape was changing amid these problems, too. Margaret Tha
