Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has said they are “back to doing what we do best” as production resumes after weeks of disruption following a major cyber attack.
The British car maker welcomed back 1,000 employees to its engine plant in Wolverhampton on Wednesday, with Range Rover production lines in Solihull to kickstart production again on Thursday.
The firm’s stamping operations in Castle Bromwich, Halewood in Merseyside, and Solihull, have also resumed production on Wednesday.
JLR global manufacturing director Luis Vara said there was a “strong sense of unity and momentum” among production workers, who were told to work from home after the firm’s systems were hacked on August 31.
“Today we’ve welcome back 1,000 employees to Wolverhampton and there is a strong sense of unity and momentum as we get back to doing what we do best, building quality luxury vehicles for our customers,” Mr Vara said on Wednesday.
“Today marks a significant moment in our journey back to full vehicle production for our people, suppliers, customers and retailers as we begin the controlled, phased restart of our operations, starting with our Wolverhampton plant where we make engines for our luxury vehicles manufacturing in Nitra, Slovakia and our batteries assembly centre in the West Midlands.
“Wolverhampton is one of the first sites to restart production because it’s where we build all of the engines for JLR vehicles ahead of vehicle production taking place.
“Colleagues will also begin to return today to our stamping operations in Castle Bromwich and Halewood, closely followed by a restart of Range Rover production lines in Solihull this Thursday.”
The cyber attack came at a crucial time for car firms, with September the month when the latest registration plates are released, traditionally boosting demand for new motors.
The incident also caused significant disruption to the firm’s global operations, with suppliers being left in limbo as production froze.
On Monday, JLR revealed a sharp drop in sales over recent months following the cyber incident, adding it had been a “challenging quarter” as it also grappled with the impact of higher US tariffs.
Sales fell by 17.1% to 85,495 units between July and September, compared with the same period a year ago, with UK sales dropping by nearly a third.
The volume of wholesales tumbled by 24.2% year-on-year to 66,165 units.
JLR said this partly reflected the production freeze since the start of September.
The firm has the largest supply chain in the UK automotive sector, which employs around 120,000 people and is largely made up of small and medium-sized businesses.
The Government recently announced it would underwrite a £1.5 billion loan guarantee to JLR to give suppliers some certainty over payments, helping bolster JLR’s cash reserves, but calls mounted for more to be done.
JLR said on Tuesday that its extended support package would see suppliers paid much faster than under the usual payment terms, by as much as 120 days early.
It will start with qualifying JLR suppliers seen as critical to the restart of production, then will be expanded to cover some non-production suppliers who have also been affected.
JLR also vowed to pay back financing costs for those JLR suppliers who use the scheme during the restart phase.
Following the cyber incident, Downing Street said it had been “a concerning time for workers at Jaguar Land Rover and, of course, across the supply chain”.
A raft of other businesses have been hit by major cyber attacks in recent months, including beer giant Asahi, high street retailer Marks & Spencer and nursery group Kido Schools.
