Jaguar Land Rover launches phased restart at factories after cyber-attack

Jaguar Land Rover has said it will begin the phased restart of its manufacturing operations on Wednesday, more than a month after the British carmaker’s factories were hit by a cyber-attack.

The maker of Jaguar and Land Rover cars has been scrambling to get its systems up and running again after the hack on the last day of August forced it to shut down factories and retail operations around the world.

JLR also announced a new financing scheme that will provide its struggling suppliers with cash upfront during the production restart phase. This means those that qualify will be paid much faster than usual, aiding their cashflow, it said. The scheme will then be expanded after the initial phase to include some non-production suppliers.

The company said the phased restart would begin on Wednesday at its sites across the West Midlands, including at its engine-making factory in Wolverhampton and its battery assembly centre in Hams Hall near Birmingham.

Work will also recommence at its stamping operations in Castle Bromwich, Halewood and Solihull, and other key areas of its Solihull vehicle production plant, such as its body shop, paint shop and its logistics centre, which feeds parts to JLR’s global manufacturing sites.

Vehicle manufacturing in Nitra, Slovakia, will restart shortly after, along with the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport production lines in Solihull this week. An update on JLR’s Halewood plant on Merseyside will be given soon.

The announcement comes after the Guardian revealed that some staff had returned to work at the Wolverhampton site on Monday and that work would recommence this week at Solihull and Nitra.

Adrian Mardell, the JLR chief executive, said the restart marked “an important moment”, adding: “We know there is much more to do but our recovery is firmly under way.”

JLR has had to rely on a manual payment system to settle outstanding invoices since the cyber-attack, but this week re‑established automated supplier payment systems.

The short‑term financing scheme means suppliers will receive a majority prepayment shortly after the point of order, and a final payment on receipt of invoice. JLR’s typical supplier payment terms are 60 days post invoice, so the change should speed up payments by as much as 120 days.