JAGUAR LAND ROVER OPENS ITS NEW WESTERN REGION OFFICE AND TRAINING ACADEMY

This Thursday (Oct 9), Jaguar Land Rover officially opens its brand new Western Region Training Academy in Irvine, CA. Eric Johnston, Jaguar Land Rover North America Regional Vice President, West explains its significance.

Why is this new training academy so important to Jaguar Land Rover?

The primary reason for the investment is to allow us to double the retailer training capacity in the Western Region in advance of the key new products coming for both Jaguar and Land Rover. On the horizon, we have hugely important vehicles coming to market like the all‑new 2015 Land Rover Discovery Sport and the 2016 Jaguar XE sedan, plus a whole series of future derivatives. This new center will ensure that our growing JLR retailers get the best training possible to ensure the success of these new models.

How many people are expected go through the new academy each year?

The Western Region is the largest geographic region for Jaguar Land Rover in the U.S, responsible for no fewer than 83 Jaguar and Land Rover franchises at 55 retail locations in 13 states; everywhere from California to Alaska, to Colorado to New Mexico, plus Hawaii and even Guam. This year, we expect more than 2,400 retailer staff to go through this new training center. That will include everyone, from the general manager down. This added capacity means retailers will be able to send staff for training on an increasingly regular basis.

Where is the new center located?

We haven’t moved too far, maybe two miles or so from our previous location to the corner Alton & Jeronimo in Irvine, right in the heart of Orange County, California. While we’ve utilized an existing 27,000 square‑foot complex, it’s been completely re‑formatted to meet our needs. It features a state‑of‑the‑art service training center with flexible, high tech classrooms and workshops that make the training more visual and efficient. An expansive showroom, built to mimic our retail stores, which will put our sales and product specialists in a “real life” static vehicle display for sales training, with adjacent brand specific training rooms.

What is the primary objective with the new training academy?

Pure and simple, it’s to raise customer satisfaction at every level of the retailer experience. The new center will enable us to dramatically increase the number of retailer staff we can work with to prepare for increased sales…providing them with the most in‑depth knowledge of the product, and better ways to engage and interact with customers.

Will other Jaguar Land Rover North American training centers be upgraded in the same way?

The Western Region academy is the first. The next renewal will be at the JLR training center at the Mahwah, New Jersey headquarters. Down the road, upgrades will be made to our training centers in Atlanta and Chicago.