Ford sees Jaguar 2002 operating loss of $500 mln

PARIS, Sept 27 Reuters reports that Ford Motor Co president and chief operating officer Nick Scheele said on Friday that the automaker's Jaguar luxury car unit would post a full-year 2002 operating loss of about $500 million.

Scheele told Reuters at the Paris auto show that the loss, most of it to come in the fourth quarter, was partly due to a delay in the launch of Jaguar's new flagship XJ model, to ensure that there would be no quality glitches with the aluminium bodied car.

Between 10,000 to 15,000 units of XJ production, which Ford had hoped to book revenues on this year, would be pushed into next year by the delay.

Scheele added that Ford had held back production of Jaguar's smaller X-Type model to reduce inventories to about 55 days' supply. He did not say what the supply was or what the inventories were before the halt in production.

Despite the loss at Jaguar, Scheele said Ford's Premier Automotive Group, which also includes Land Rover, Volvo and Aston Martin was on track to deliver strong revenue growth as part of Ford's multi-year-turnaround plan after the company's 5.45 billion loss in 2001.