Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has revealed that it will roll-out an agency model retail agreement for its car retail franchisees by 2024 – but has refused to comment on potential network cuts.

The British carmaker, which has seen a dramatic Arch Concept corporate identity roll-out by its franchises in recent years, is making the move in a bid to improve its customers’ omnichannel retail experience.

Its move comes as Nissan stands accused of trying to implement a “cloak and dagger” retail restructure which will include around 20 site closures in a bid to achieve improvements in customers’ digital and physical retail journey.

JLR UK managing director Rawdon Glover told AM: "Jaguar Land Rover UK will transition to a ‘direct to customer’ agency model by 2024. 

“This will improve customer experience and optimise on- and offline touch points in line with our digital transformation, and elevate our iconic brands to the levels of modern luxury determined by our Reimagine strategy.”

Car retailers have already started to voice their concerns that the shift could also usher in a reduction in JLR’s retail network footprint.

But the OEM refused to comment on any details of the strategy, stating that consultation was now underway with retail partners across the UK.

One JLR retail group boss told AM: “It would be a huge blow to franchisees who have spent considerable sums on rolling out the Arch Concept and buying neighbouring businesses to help consolidate the network to this point if there were terminations and closures.

“As it stands today, we don’t really know what the plan is, but we’re keen to engage with the brand and find out more.”

AM understand that JLR intends to cut its retailers’ margin on new cars by 1ppt from the start of 2023 to cover the costs of moving to an agency agreement.

It has also been suggested that the retail agreement changes could impact used cars, an area likely to be a point of contention among franchised partners.

One told AM: “Taking used cars from franchisees would be a crazy move. I really hope they don’t try to impose that.”