JAGUAR is looking to women to drive up sales of its new S-type, which will be in showrooms next month.

At present, women make up only about five per cent of buyers of the Midlands-based company's cars.

But chairman Nick Scheele said he expected women to account for 20-25 per cent of S-type purchases.

"We think this new car will appeal to women and we are also expecting more sales to slightly younger drivers than at present and also more private sales," Mr Scheele said at the car's media launch.

The S-type is not being made at Jaguar's Brown's Lane plant in Coventry, but at the company's Castle Bromwich facility in the West Midlands.

The new car, smaller than the current Jaguar models, has already created 1,300 extra jobs and will be on sale in the UK from March 24.

Mr Scheele said the company had already taken 10,000 orders for the S-type - including 7,000 from the UK - prompting the company to think in terms of increasing its projected 40,000 production plan for the new car in 1999.

Next year, Jaguar plans to produce 55,000 S-types, doubling current Jaguar sales, which reached a record 50,000 worldwide in 1998.

The new S-type starts with a 3.0-litre model costing £28,300, and will compete with the likes of Mercedes, BMW and Audi.

Ford-owned Jaguar has pumped £480m into the new car, including a Government grant of £80m.

About two years after the S-type goes on sale, the company will launch its new "baby Jag" - code-named X400 - which is being built at Ford's Halewood plant on Merseyside.

The entry model S-type is only a little more expensive than the top-of-the-range Cowley-built Rover 75, which goes on sale in June.

Story date: Friday 19 February

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