LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s biggest carmaker, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), said on Tuesday some factories would restart manufacturing on Wednesday after a nearly six week shutdown following a cyber attack, one of the country’s most disruptive and high-profile hacks.
To try to help smaller parts suppliers who have been pushed to the brink after weeks without business, JLR also announced it would provide them with up-front cash during the production restart phase.
The luxury carmaker, owned by India’s Tata Motors, has three factories in Britain, which together produce about 1,000 cars per day, and economists had warned of the impact of a prolonged shutdown on the country’s manufacturing output.
JLR said its engines and battery units would restart work on Wednesday, as well as parts of its vehicle production plant including its body shop and paint shop, meaning the return of some of its 33,000 staff to work after weeks at home.
Production lines for the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport vehicles at its main factory in Solihull will start later this week, the company added.
Suppliers of parts used in the company’s just-in-time production lines will now be paid shortly after the point of order, JLR said, compared to a previous 60-days post invoice arrangement, helping to stabilise the supply chain amid worries that some smaller businesses could go bust.
“Our suppliers are central to our success, and today we are launching a new financing arrangement that will enable us to pay our suppliers early, using the strength of our balance sheet to support their cashflows,” JLR’s chief executive Adrian Mardell said in a statement.
(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru and Sarah Young in London; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Elizabeth Piper)
