Discovery in line for strategic rethink

JLR CEO ponders brand direction as underperforming SUVS trail Rangies, Defenders

- MARK TISSHAW

The future of the Discovery brand in JLR's new 'House of Brands' will be outlined within the next 12 months.

JLR CEO Adrian Mardell told Autocar that investments in Discovery need to be set within that 12-month timeframe, but he hopes that the company would be able to talk more specifically about its plans for Discovery before then, possibly in the first quarter of next year.

As part of the formation of the House of Brands, Defender, Range Rover and Discovery have been split from the umbrella Land Rover brand to become brands in their own right, with distinctive looks, model ranges, development teams and even dealers selling them. Jaguar is the fourth brand in the JLR portfolio.

However, while Jaguar, Defender and Range Rover are largely now defined and their future paths set, Discovery has not been. The current Discovery is Land Rover's lowest-volume model, and the Discovery Sport, once JLR's biggest seller, now only outsells its bigger sibling and the Range Rover Velar.

"There's no hiding: Discovery isn't performing to the same level as the other two [Range Rover and Defender]," said Mardell. "The equity in Discovery is less today, and lots of people have lots of views of why that might be.

They're interesting, but they're only interesting if they're informative about what you do next.

"We need a dedicated think-tank to do that. I'm a great believer in deep and meaningful thinking and giving people the time to do that." Mardell said the Range Rover brand is already well set with or without the House of Brands, but Defender revenues have doubled in the past three years off the back of "dedicated thinking" - even though that had largely been done before this more formal split of the models into brands.

Mardell acknowledged that it's "tougher to breathe life into a seven-year-old product", one of whose USPS of seven seats is also available in other JLR products.