Retailer Cabinet leader Larry Zinn said sales teams are honing their skills as they await inventory.
The turmoil at Jaguar Land Rover's headquarters in the U.K. has not impacted dealers, says Larry Zinn, chairman of the Jaguar Land Rover Retailer Cabinet.
CEO Thierry Bollore, after just two years on the job, left abruptly in December.
The reinvention of Jaguar as an all-electric superluxury brand remains on track, with a new three-vehicle lineup due in about two years.
And while most of JLR's competitors have found ways to earn significant profits while dealing with the microchip shortage, JLR hasn't had a profitable quarter in almost two years.
The automaker has a backlog of more than 250,000 orders for the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Defender.
But the shortage of vehicles isn't all bad news. It has helped reduce incentives and prompted customers to order their vehicles, often with expensive customized features.
Dealers, Zinn said, had a great 2022.
"Jaguar Land Rover dealers have been performing at a very high level in relation to the rest of the luxury industry," Zinn told Automotive News. "In the long term, if and when inventory normalizes, we'll certainly see margins go down, but the volumes will go up. Hopefully that's the offset that we need to continue to maintain the levels of profitability that we have. Additionally, with more volume comes more servicing and parts sales."
The production bottleneck caused by the chip shortage has been elevated to one of the company's highest priorities under interim CEO Adrian Mardell, a 32-year company veteran who previously ran JLR's financial operations.
While Mardell works on getting production aligned with demand, JLR's sales personnel have been honing their skills, Zinn said.
"When you are in a situation where you're taking an order for a vehicle that might not arrive for somewhere up to 18 months, the amount of communication and the relationship that's built, is different.
"It's a different set of skills than what would normally be required. But if you're a good retailer, you never stop training. You're keeping your people focused on the basics and how you work in a different environment."
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