Jaguar Land Rover to Resume Production After Major Cyber-Attack

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is set to restart some production this week following a major cyber-attack that forced the carmaker to shut down factories and send workers home. Manufacturing will resume first at JLR's engine factory in Wolverhampton, but it is expected to be several weeks before all operations are running at full capacity, with other sites to return gradually.

Work at JLR's three UK sites in the West Midlands and Merseyside has been suspended since a cyber-attack at the end of August forced the company to shut down. The resumption of operations will be a welcome relief to JLR's array of suppliers, some of which are small businesses that have faced huge financial pressure.

Last week, the government announced it would underwrite a £1.5bn loan guarantee to JLR in a bid to support its parts and service suppliers. Some suppliers have had little or no money coming in for more than a month, while bills have still needed to be paid. The managing director of Genex UK, a small company which presses metal parts, told the BBC he had to lay off some of his 18 staff members because of a cash shortage.

JLR is continuing to investigate the attack, which forced the company to shut its IT systems and send workers home. That safety measure paralysed virtually every aspect of JLR's business and meant it could not build or sell any cars, or distribute parts to service centres. The hack is believed to be costing the company at least £50m a week in lost production. A group calling itself Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters has claimed responsibility.

Experts have warned while production will gradually resume, the impact of the cyber-attack on JLR is not over. The company said its recovery programme was "firmly under way" and that its global parts logistics centre, which supplies spare parts to dealerships for vehicle servicing, was "returning to full operations". However, the restart process will take time, and some suppliers may not recover quickly.