Jaguar Cars said Thursday it is discussing production cuts for the rest of the year because of a weakening demand for its luxury cars. The company, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Co., said it had met with union officials about possible production cuts but did not anticipate any layoffs from its manufacturing staff of 7,300. The weakness of the dollar and intense competition had hurt sales in the United States, which accounts for about half of Jaguar's sales, said company spokesman Don Hume. Jaguar's U.S. sales were down 3 percent in the first six months of the year compared to the first half of 2003, he said. Jaguar sold 57,000 cars in the United States last year, he said. Jaguar executives met with union representatives Wednesday to discuss some production cuts at the company's three plants in England, Hume said. Hume said these cuts were not part of a larger reorganization of Jaguar which Ford had announced earlier. "We said at the time that we were accelerating our plans to address the various issues Jaguar had," but those plans have not been completed, he said. In July, Ford reported that its Premier Automotive Group, which includes Jaguar, Aston Martin, Volvo and Land Rover, had a pretax loss of US$362 million for the second quarter on sales of US$6.9 billion, compared with a pretax profit of US$166 million on sales of US$6.4 for the second quarter of 2003.
