JAGUAR Land Rover (JLR) Australia will expand its national dealership network by 20 per cent, focusing on housing growth corridors in major cities and also rural centres to drive up the number of retailers from 43 to 52 within 18 months.

Speaking with GoAuto at the national media reveal of the Range Rover Velar in Sydney last week, JLR Australia managing director Matthew Wiesner explained that a new-model onslaught must be met with a greater number of outlets.

“There are some glaring holes (in which JLR Australia is not represented) both provincially as well as metropolitan,” he confessed.

“Essendon (Victoria) comes out of the ground and that’s open in December, January, somewhere around there. We are looking at Brisbane, on the western side of Brisbane, again, a massive opportunity for us.

“In Sydney … there is really only two growth corridors, the south-west and north-west. We’ve got south-west covered, we’ve got the Paul Warren Group building a new facility in Campbelltown that will be open in three or four months. So that leaves that north-west corridor, which we need to close up.”

Mr Wiesner said that the north-west of Sydney would be covered “in the next 12 to 18 months” to bring the number of Jaguar/Land Rover dealerships in New South Wales to a dominant 18 – compared with just seven in Victoria, even behind the 10 in Queensland.

Dealerships in a further two rural centres will add to the tally in Victoria, while there are no others planned for Queensland, one other in New South Wales, and another in Western Australia to move its total from three to four – clear of North Territory, South Australia and Tasmania with two each.

“We will be opening in Wagga Wagga, Bunbury (Western Australia) and Shepparton (Victoria),” he revealed.

“(The latter) which we’re open but a new facility is coming on shortly. That will be happening this year, as in this fiscal year. And (then) all of those key provincial regional sort-of centres, Bendigo (Victoria), we need to be in Bendigo.

“People are buying cars (in those areas) yet they’re travelling significant distances for a service.”

Mr Wiesner said that while having Land Rover in rural centres has long been justified, Jaguar’s new-model plans included two new SUVs – the sub-$50K E-Pace in the second quarter of 2018 and the I-Pace EV in the fourth quarter – and that meant both brands could expand into those areas.

“We know from a Land Rover point of view in regional Australia, we can go with Land Rover one-for-one because from an appeal point of view, it’s a prestige option, it makes sense from an SUV point of view in regional Australia (and) the sooner the better,” Mr Wiesner said.

“(But) back to Jaguar, that’s what E-Pace then allows us to do. So to put ourselves in these locations, you then have accessible products like E-Pace, Evoque, Discovery Sports.

“It’s not like they’re buying big Range Rovers for $100,000 to $200,000, it’s about being able to get yourself into the brand but it’s accessible to a broad market.”

In addition to the BMW X1-rivalling E-Pace small SUV, which will bring the entry to Jaguar ownership down by more than $10,000 from the current $60,400 (plus on-road costs) XE medium sedan starting point, and the I-Pace (see separate story), Land Rover will this month add the Velar medium SUV to its line-up to sit between the Evoque small SUV and Range Rover Sport large SUV.

Following the launch of the new Discovery large seven-seat SUV this year, the four-year-old Range Rover Sport and five-year-old Range Rover will also come in for a major mid-life refresh next year.

It will then be followed by a new-generation Defender expected to take the place of the previous Discovery 4 – which has gone Audi Q7-hunting in its fifth-generation – as a pragmatic, practicality-focused multi-seat off-roader.

According to Mr Wiesner, around half of all current Jaguar Land Rover dealerships have been overhauled nationwide, with the look and feel of the remainder set to fall in line with that of new dealers by late next year.

“(Dealers) are spending a lot of money on new construction, new facilities, creating a whole new experience that quite frankly the brands needed, that’s relevant and relative to the products that you now see,” he said.

“You put Velar in a new environment, these new environments that are being built around the country, and the whole customer experience takes a whole new level.

“We’ve done probably about 55 per cent of the network. By the end of the year around 60-to-65 per cent of the network will be done. So there’s some significant planning and completions that will happen over the next 18 months. By the end of 2018, there or thereabouts the whole network will be complete.”

By Daniel DeGasperi