A sweeping behind-the-scenes re-organisation has merged Jaguar and Land Rover's senior management functions under single directors, effectively making a single operating company.

The aim is to streamline decision-making within Ford's Premier Automotive Group and speed up the rate at which cost-savings can be squeezed out of the two companies. The reorganisation brings the 10 major departments of Jaguar and Land Rover under a single head, each of whom sits on a co-ordinating board chaired by Land Rover boss Bob Dover.

Fellow PAG company Aston Martin is represented on the board by its boss Ulrich Bez, but Volvo remains a separate organisation reporting directly to Mark Fields.

The changes have been gradually introduced over the first half of this year. “This has been going on quietly for a few months, but for some reason we haven't announced any of it,” says a PAG insider. “Effectively the two are now a single company.”

More shake-ups are likely as Mark Fields, the new chief executive of Premier Automotive Group who took over on July 1, asserts control.

The re-organisation - agreed by Fields' predecessor Wolfgang Reitzle - has unsettled senior PAG executives because for every head of department promoted to the new co-ordinating board, there is another director who has been bypassed.

Of the key operational posts, Land Rover directors Matthew Taylor and Steve Jones are now in charge of sales and marketing and purchasing respectively, while Jaguar directors run engineering (Nick Barter) and manufacturing (Mike Beasley).

PAG's new management team will also have to decide how to co-ordinate key functions like design and product development. Ford's chief technical officer and PAG product development guru, Richard Parry-Jones, has already appointed Hans Gustavsson as a “policeman” to oversee commonality in engineering, while new PAG design boss Peter Horbury will co-ordinate the design activities of the four brands.