Luxury carmaker re-opens factories

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive will resume production at some of its UK sites after weeks-long outages following a cyberattack that snarled its global manufacturing network.

Engine and battery assembly at the company’s West Midlands facilities will resume on Wednesday, the luxury manufacturer said in a statement.

Stamping operations at Castle Bromwich, Halewood and Solihull will also restart the same day, along with body, paint and logistics areas that feed the carmaker’s global production system.

The company is also introducing a financing program to speed up payments to suppliers, including cash-up-front to bolster their cash flow.

In late August, JLR was hit by a cyberattack that forced it to shut down factories worldwide, including UK sites that make about 1,000 vehicles a day, as well as plants in China, India, Brazil and Slovakia.

The disruption rippled through its supply chain, threatening thousands of jobs. 

The UK government later stepped in with a £1.5 billion (R34 billion) emergency loan guarantee to help JLR pay suppliers, a move that experts said could contain the fallout but might also deter firms from investing more in cybersecurity.

The incident underscored the growing risks posed by cyber vulnerabilities in complex automotive supply chains and marked one of the most serious operational crises for the Tata Motors–owned manufacturer in years.

The automaker last year reported wholesale volumes of just over 400,000 vehicles.

Automotive analyst and former Land Rover chief engineer Charles Tennant said the shutdown may have wiped out roughly £5 million (R115 million) in daily profits and delayed production of more than 30,000 vehicles, losses he described as irretrievable.

The cyberattack is the latest setback for a company already contending with higher US tariffs in its biggest market and criticism over a rebranding of its Jaguar marque.

Jaguar has paused production entirely until a new all-electric lineup is ready, leaving a gap in its portfolio.

The shutdown has also weighed on Britain’s wider manufacturing sector.

UK factory output posted its steepest decline in six months, with JLR’s troubles adding to pressure on an industry already facing weak demand and persistent supply-chain strains.