Jaguar Land Rover says harder to attract suppliers, EU staff due to Brexit

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

By Costas Pitas

LONDON (Reuters) - EU citizens are demanding longer contracts and better conditions to move to Britain and the number of new international suppliers willing to work in the country is limited, the boss of Jaguar Land Rover, Britain's biggest carmaker, told Reuters.

"Inward investment takes longer or is reduced so the number of suppliers that we can convince to come to the UK is really more or less limited now," Chief Executive Ralf Speth said in an interview on Thursday.

"People who come to the UK want to have special conditions because they don't know whether they have to leave and therefore they expect special contracts... You want to have a longer contract and better conditions at the end of the day just to be convinced."

But Speth said he believed Britain and the European Union would achieve a common sense agreement because politicians are ultimately responsible to "their constituencies, their region, their nation".

"I believe in this kind of real common sense... and not just all of a sudden fall back into the Middle Ages where everybody fights against each other," he said.

The firm unveiled plans on Thursday to offer an electric or hybrid option for all its new vehicles from 2020 and Speth said the firm would build greener models in its home market, but declined to say when.

Asked whether Jaguar Land Rover's long-term future was best served within parent company Tata Motors, following media speculation that the firm might be exploring the possibility of an initial public offering, Speth said: "Yes."

"I really appreciate having this kind of parent," he said. "Tata sees it really as a long-term investment and to be private up to a certain degree."

(Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Jason Neely)