A NEW £7.5 million Jaguar Land Rover aftersales centre has been officially opened.

The state-of-the-art base, at Bailey Road, Christchurch, represents a massive investment by Westover Group, and boasts cutting edge technology.

Peter Walker, aftersales director for Westover Group, explained: “This is the opening of our Jaguar Land Rover aftersales facility, which will see Jaguar and Land Rover come together in Christchurch. We are moving from a Land Rover centre which has 10 bays and a Jaguar centre which has five bays, to this 29-bay facility.

“It is the largest fit-out Jaguar Land Rover has done in the UK, outside of their own facility. We have spent a lot of time working on this prestigious environment which suits the product.”

The centre boasts 19 ramps, including speciality ramps which can lift up to 5.5 tonnes.

Mr Walker said: “Towards the end of the year or beginning of 2019, we will be opening the Jaguar Land Rover showroom, which is currently in progress.”

Overall the project represents a £12 million investment.

Mr Walker said: “Our technicians were almost speechless when they first saw the finished workshop. We hope all our visitors will be equally impressed. Massive thanks go to local building contractor Knights Brown, for all their work on the project. It’s been a really successful relationship and we look forward to working with them on the next phase of our redevelopment.

“Thanks, too, to Gemco, who have supplied and fitted all the technical equipment in the workshop. They’ve done a brilliant job, meeting our very specific and cutting-edge requirements.”

Jaguar Land Rover UK customer service director Andrew West said: “This is a fantastic new state-of-the-art Jaguar Land Rover aftersales facility that Westover has created in Christchurch.

“Capacity has increased by 100 per cent over the previous sites, so it’s created a number of key technician and aftersales roles in the area, too.

“I’m extremely proud of this new facility and congratulate Paul Dillon, Westover’s managing director, and his team for this outstanding new investment.”