Jaguar Land Rover has declared to start manufacturing again in phases after over one month of suspension of production due to a crippling cyberattack. The British car manufacturer will start its operations at its Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre and Battery Assembly Centre in the West Midlands, and the employees will be transferred back to stamping operations in Castle Bromwich, Halewood, and Solihull locations.
Manufacturing restart begins with critical production facilities
Another initiative by the company is the emergency financing program, which aids in the languishing suppliers, where the company incurs an advance payment to quick-track cash flow up to 120 days compared to the normal credit terms of 60 days. The gradual recovery of JLR will start with the production of engines in the Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre in Wolverhampton, and then the Battery Assembly Centre will resume operation.
There is also the reappearance of body shop and paint shop activities in Solihull, as well as the Logistics Operations Centre, where parts are shipped out to the manufacturing plants around the world. The firm is optimistic that it can resume making vehicles next in its Nitra, Slovakia plant, where it makes the Land Rover Discovery and Land Rover Defender. JLR will also reopen the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport production lines in Solihull this week, followed by the Halewood plant close to Merseyside.
Cyberattack costs are estimated at nearly $7 million daily
JLR has found the incident very expensive, and it has been estimated that the company may be losing close to $7 million in profit each day as the company is shut down. There have been suppliers taken close to the edge of collapse, but JLR has continued to make manual payments to pay outstanding invoices whilst automated payment systems have been offline.
Emergency supplier financing scheme accelerates payments significantly
JLR has also provided a temporary financing scheme, which will compensate suppliers who meet the criteria with payment at an accelerated rate compared to the usual 60-day post-invoice. The short-term scheme offers the majority of prepayments soon after receiving the order, followed by the final true-up payments after receipt of the invoice, which is one of the ways of accelerating supplier payments up to 120 days.
During the phase of restart, the company will reimburse the financing costs to suppliers who will be part of the payment program, and banking partnerships will be used to give suppliers much-needed cash flow. The scheme would first consider suppliers considered to be very important in the restoration of production, and subsequently consideration as non-production suppliers such as caterers and consultants.
Sales figures reveal a significant impact from the production halt
JLR reported Q2 FY26 sales of wholesale volumes that fell 24.2 percent compared to the same period last year and retail volumes that fell 17.1 percent. The company also blamed the volume effects on the cyber attack that started at the beginning of September, and it has been hit in its wholesale operations.
The CEO Adrian Mardell has said that suppliers are the key element in the success of JLR, by which JLR leverages its financial position on the balance sheet to pay its suppliers cash flows in times of recovery. Peter Kyle, the Business and Trade Secretary, hailed the news but appreciated the pressure that was still being felt by companies further along the supply chain.
The company is experiencing high losses in terms of its finances and supply chain pressure, but its broad support plan to suppliers indicates that the company is concerned about doing business with former partners. The gradual process of re-establishing operations, including fast-tracked payment conditions, must stabilize the overall automotive ecosystem due to this cyber-attack having never been seen before. The only hope will be to uphold security measures in the process of restoring production capacity.