Jaguars founder to retire

Press, Issue 32535, 19 February 1971, Page 7

Jaguars founder to retire

Sir William Lyons, the chairman and chief executive of Jaguar Cars, Ltd, and a man said to be the last of the great pioneers of the British motor industry, has announced that he will retire soon.

“Jaguar without Lyons will be almost as unthinkable as ' Rolls without Royce," writes John Langley in the “Daily Telegraph.” Sir William Lyons will be 70 in September. It is believed that he will stay “at the helm” of Jaguar until the company celebrates its fiftieth anniversary next year. Lyons founded the firm as the Swallow Sidecar Company in 1922.

When the time comes to give up day-to-day control, he will still retain an interest in the company that has been his life for half a century. Meanwhile, he says: “I am doing a lot of delegation, which has been working out very well indeed.” Jaguar Cars is now part of the British Leyland Motor Corporation, of which Sir William Lyons is a vicechairman.

Life without Lyons is going to seem strange to many at Coventry, but Sir William has no apparent qualms about the company’s future. “Provided that the Jaguar image and its separate identity are maintained I am quite sure that it will continue to prosper,” he said.

I went to see Sir William at Coventry before he left for a tour of the company’s assembly operations in South Africa, Langley writes. In particular, I wanted to find out what was" being done to expand production of the XJ6 to meet the world-wide demand for the car.

In spite of record production in 1970, when output of Jaguar cars reached 30,000 for the first' time, delivery delays of up to a year are still common. "The order position is still improving but we are now keeping up beter with demand,” Sir William said.

“Until recently, we were falling further and further behind.” With a quality car like the XJ6, you cannot double output overnight but Jaguar is making

plans to step up car production by something like 50 per cent during the next five years. This increase will be achieved by modernising and reorganising the present factory at Coventry rather than by opening new plants. “We believe in efficiency rather than size,” commented Sir William, although assembly of the XJ6 for Europe will also start shortly at British Leyland’s factory at Malines, in Belgium. But for the industrial troubles that plagued the industry last year, Jaguar could have made up to 5000 extra cars. Less than 10 per cent of this lost output was caused by strikes within Jaguar itself: the larger proportion was lost through troubles at outside suppliers. “We have no complaints about our own men—they work very hard,” said Sir William. “The general labour situation is our main worry, but I think the atmosphere is changing: I think the average man is aware of this situation now.”

Provided that production is maintained, Sir William believes that the current expansion plans will enable the company to achieve “reasonably satisfactory” delivery times for the XJ6. Existing owners, at least, are not too unhappy about the long , waiting lists: the high resale value is enabling them to enjoy Jaguar motoring virtually free of depreciation costs. But Sir William is far from complacent about the continual rise in costs which has just forced British Leyland to increase its selling prices again. “This is a very worrying situation and we are particularly concerned about the effects on exports," he said. "If we are compelled to keep on raising our prices, we may find our cars getting beyond the purchasing brackets of our traditional customers.” On the technical side. Sir William said that the longawaited, new multi-cylinder engine would be available later this year on the Etype, as an' alternative to the existing six-cylinder XK engine. But he would not be drawn into saying when it will be offered in the XJ6 saloon.

Jaguar is also well advanced on the development of anti-lock brakes and a

self-levelling ride system, which Sir William regards as the major impending technical developments. Something which has delighted the Jaguar team is the number of letters received from XJ6 owners commenting that the car has restored their enjoyment in motoring. In Sir William’s view, this is what Jaguar ownership is about—“lt should be a car

which gives an immediate feeling of pleasure to drive. After a hard day’s work a Jaguar owner should be able to derive pleasure even from driving home in the rush-hour.” So one task that Sir William has not delegated is his habit of calling for a new car off the production line, to drive home and ensure that the standard is being maintained.