Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), the UK's leading manufacturer of premium vehicles, has invested GBP 45 million in a new state-of-the-art servo press line at its Halewood operations, near Liverpool, England.

The new servo stamping line has a combined press stamping capacity of 7,900 tons, making it the fastest and one of the biggest and most powerful press lines across Jaguar Land Rover, stamping both steel and aluminium panels.

Installing this giant facility required a major reconfiguration of the Halewood press shop, with the plant roof raised by almost 12 metres to accommodate the new machinery. The press shop bay also had to have its footprint extended by almost 50%, compared to that of the previous stamping machine.

Richard Else, Jaguar Land Rover, operations director, Halewood, said, ''This colossal new press line reinforces Jaguar Land Rover’s long-term investment in UK manufacturing. Halewood is one of the most flexible, advanced automotive manufacturing facilities in Europe, producing two of the highest quality, largest selling Jaguar Land Rover vehicles in over 170 countries world-wide. This investment ensures we can make more panels, even more efficiently, and will continue to do so for many years to come.''

The new press line will speed up the delivery of the required volume of pressed parts produced at Halewood. This will help to feed the body shops across Jaguar Land Rover that are working around the clock to meet the increasing global demand for its award-winning vehicles.

Shares of the company gained Rs 4.3, or 1.13%, to trade at Rs 384.40. The total volume of shares traded was 124,766 at the BSE (12.12 p.m., Friday).