Jaguar Land Rover to invest £200m in F-Type factory at Castle Bromwich JLR has already hired thousands of staff across the country since 2009, when it was forced to turn to the Labour Government for financial support and was rejected. It is benefiting from booming demand for its premium cars in emerging markets such as China. The company has invested in its Solihull site and earlier this year it kicked off a search for 1,000 new workers in Halewood, Merseyside, to increase production of the popular Range Rover Evoque. It is understood that 35,000 people applied for the jobs. However, so far the turnaround at the company has been led by Land Rover. In the first quarter of 2012 JLR sales in Europe rose 24.9pc to 20,734. But Jaguar sales rose by 7pc to just 4,164, while Land Rover sales increased 30pc to 16,570. To kickstart the growth of Jaguar, the company wants a convertible version of the F-Type to go on sale next year, followed by the launch of a coupe. JLR is investing £1.5bn a year on research and development and wants to launch 40 new models or variants of new models in the next five years. The company is on course for record pre-tax profits this year of around £1.5bn thanks to demand for the Range Rover Evoque. The car, which Victoria Beckham helped design, is sold out in some parts of the world for 2012. JLR made pre-tax profits of £559m in the final three months of 2011 as revenues rose by 41pc to £3.75bn. As well as expanding manufacturing in the UK, JLR has formed a joint venture with Chinese car maker Chery to start manufacturing in China. In March the company raised £500m to help finance its growth. JLR declined to comment.