Jaguar Land Rover extends shutdown of production for another week as a devastating cyber attack continues to impact both the company and its supply chain. Tony McDonough reports
Automotive giant Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) says the shutdown in production caused by a devastating cyber attack will continue for at least another week.
At the beginning of September JLR shut down production at its factory in Halewood in Merseyside, where it employs around 3,500 people, as well as at plants in Solihull, Wolverhampton, Castle Bromwich, Slovakia, China, India and Brazil.
In the following days a group of hackers believed to be behind the recent cyber attack on Marks & Spencer (M&S), went on messaging app Telegram claiming to be behind the JLR incident. They call themselves ‘Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters’.
This crisis has had a devastating impact not only on JLR itself but also on numerous smaller firms in its supply chain. A few days ago the BBC reported some suppliers were facing a threat to their future with calls for Government intervention.
In a statement on Tuesday JLR said: “Today we have informed colleagues, suppliers and partners that we have extended the current pause in our production until Wednesday, September 24, 2025.
“We have taken this decision as our forensic investigation of the cyber incident continues, and as we consider the different stages of the controlled restart of our global operations, which will take time.
“We are very sorry for the continued disruption this incident is causing and we will continue to update as the investigation progresses.”
READ MORE: Peel to invest £16m into new phase of Wirral Waters
READ MORE: Aldi pushes on with plans for £9m Wirral store
During the COVID lockdowns firms across the country were offered a lifeline in the form of furlough payments from the Government. There are now calls for a similar scheme to be introduced for JLR suppliers.
Speaking to the BBC, David Bailey, professor of business economics at Birmingham Business School, said: “There’s anywhere up to a quarter of a million people in the supply chain for Jaguar Land Rover.
“So if there’s a knock-on effect from this closure, we could see companies going under and jobs being lost.”
It has been a troubled year for JLR already. In August LBN revealed the wrangle over tariffs in the US had hit quarterly revenues and profits in the three months to June 30.