Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is planning to reopen its £500m engine manufacturing centre in early October after the significant cyber attack on the car firm, according to a report.
Britain’s largest automotive employer has been unable to assemble cars since its computer systems were infiltrated on 31 August.
According to the Sunday Times, the company has put suppliers on notice that production at its Wolverhampton facility will resume on 6 October, subject to the engine manufacturing centre systems passing tests to ensure no remnants of the virus exist.
JLR declined to comment on the report but a spokesperson told the Guardian: “Our teams continue to work around the clock alongside cybersecurity specialists, the NCSC and law enforcement to ensure we restart in a safe and secure manner.
“The foundational work of our recovery programme is firmly underway, and we will continue to provide regular updates to our colleagues, retailers and suppliers. We thank everyone connected with JLR for their continued support and patience.”
Following the cyber attack, the company was forced to shut down most of the systems it uses to track parts, vehicles and tooling in its factories, as well as everything to do with selling its luxury Range Rover, Discovery and Defender SUVs.
JLR has subsequently restarted some IT systems and regained the ability to repay suppliers, send parts to mechanics to repair vehicles on the road, and to send finished cars at its factories to showrooms.
With plants in Solihull and Wolverhampton in the West Midlands in addition to Halewood in Merseyside, JLR is one of the UK’s largest exporters and employs 34,000 people in its UK operations.
skip past newsletter promotion
Sign up to Business Today
Get set for the working day – we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter promotion
It also operates the largest supply chain in the UK automotive sector, much of it made up of SMEs, and employs about 120,000 people.
