India's Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover has posted record annual profit of more than 1 billion pound, powered by its luxury cars' sales in China and India.
The company reported pre-tax profits of 1.1 billion pound in the year to March 31, up from 15 million pound last year.
The increase has been driven by a huge rise in Jaguar and Land Rover sales in China and emerging markets like India where the middle classes see the British cars as status symbols.
"Jaguar Land Rover is now a strong, profitable and innovative competitor in the premium car industry," said Carl-Peter Forster, chief executive of JLR's parent company Tata Motors.
JLR employes 17,000 staff in the UK, but is looking to hire at least another 1,000, with Tata investing GBP 1 billion a year towards expanding production and development of new models.
Tata bought JLR from Ford in 2008 for 1.1 billion pound, but suffered heavy losses initially due to global economic recession that dampened luxury car sales.
However, Jaguar Land Rover business turned profitable for the year ended March 31, 2010 reporting a Profit before Tax of 32 million pound.
Further investment in new vehicles and facilities such as the Range Rover Evoque and Jaguar XJ, helped JLR sales last fiscal rise by 26% from 193,982 in FY10 to 243,621 including 190,628 Land Rovers. Sales in China rose by 43% to 29,600.
Ralf Speth, chief executive of JLR, said: "This is a solid performance, but we must remain focused on delivering a strong, sustainable business model for the future.
To that end, we have committed more than 1 billion pound a year over the next five years to the creation of new and exciting products, which will strengthen Jaguar Land Rover's position in the global marketplace."
The Daily Telegraph quoted Tata as saying the company would target future growth in China, India, Russia and Brazil, but warned "external geopolitical and economic factors", including exchange rates and growing raw material costs, could hinder volumes and profitability.
JLR's growth in sales has led to Tata scrapping plans to close one of its three UK plants. The company is now considering plans for a new engine plant in the UK, which could create 1,000 jobs, and a Chinese assembly base.
A JLR spokesman said: "We employ 17,000 but our UK payroll number should increase to 20,000 by 2013. We plan to spend 1 billion pound a year over the next five years on production and development."
