Jaguar & Land Rover open joint regional HQ

Headed by Andy Gawthorpe, Managing Director for the new Jaguar & Land Rover Middle East and Africa, the head office now has a specialist staff of 26, which for the first time incorporates dedicated Sales, Marketing and Customer Care teams, each focused on implementing globally recognized programmes across the region.

"Our mission is to provide an unprecedented level of service and support for Jaguar & Land Rover across the Middle East and Africa while nurturing each of the brands' own individuality and distinctiveness in the market place.

"Bringing Land Rover and Jaguar closer together and increasing the resource shows a massive commitment to the region, which will benefit from an extremely high level of expertise."

Leading the newly created Customer Care and Training Department is Franco Fodor who arrives in Dubai from Latin America with 14 years of automotive experience. Fodor will work closely with the brands' partners across the region to ensure that the latest globally recognized programmes are implemented to provide their expanding customer bases with unrivalled service levels.

Marwan Halabi was appointed the new Marketing Manager for Jaguar & Land Rover earlier this year and will oversee all marketing, public relations and advertising activities across the region for both brands.

Halabi, 34, a Lebanese national, moved to Dubai from Morocco where he was a Group Account Director at TMI-J Walter Thompson, overseeing the strategic business development of a number of major international brands, including Ford and Jaguar.

Aamir Ibrahim takes up his second assignment with Jaguar and Land Rover Middle East & Africa following his appointment as Operations Manager. Ibrahim was previously with Ford Motor Company as the Coordination Manager on Commercial Vehicles and Customer Services Division. He had also worked as a General Manager for Marketing and Corporate Strategy for a major telecommunications company.

Gawthorpe added: "Opening one regional base has enabled us to appoint specialists into key positions who bring with them diversified brand experience thus providing greater benefits to our growing customer base. We can work closer with our business partners throughout the region to provide the highest level of professional support.

"The future is very bright for both brands which have a fantastic portfolio of products that are achieving considerable market growth in the region. The flagship Range Rover model continues to be in great demand with the Middle East now being the third largest market in the world. The unprecedented success of this model has helped the Land Rover brand achieve a 42% increase in sales for the first seven months of this year.

"Jaguar on the other hand recorded a 23% increase in sales in the Middle East and North Africa for the first six months of this year. This notable growth highlights the fact that the Jaguar brand and model range are becoming more and more recognized and desirable."

Jaguar & Land Rover are a part of the Premier Automotive Group, the umbrella brand owned by Ford Motor Company covering Land Rover, Jaguar, Volvo and Aston Martin.