JLR supplier reopens factory after cyber-attack

David Roberts, the chairman of Evtec which supplies parts to Jaguar Land Rover, said it "felt like Christmas" as the factory reopened

A key Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) supplier has reopened its factory, but says it lost about £13m in revenue during the car maker's six-week shutdown.

Evtec Group, based in Coventry, furloughed 900 workers on 80% pay after JLR halted production in late August due to a cyber-attack.

The company has now restarted some operations, with 60 staff back at work, but says it will be at least another four to six weeks until it is running at full capacity.

Evtec's chairman David Roberts described the shutdown as the worst crisis of his four-decade career in the automotive industry - worse even than the disruption caused by Covid.

"At least in Covid we were all together. We all went home. Here only a section of the economy has gone home," he said.

Mr Roberts said the factory floor felt "almost like Christmas" as production lines finally came back to life this week.

"It's just so good after six weeks to be back at work," he said. "We've got revenue starting to come through. That's a godsend."

Debbie Welland, who works in Evtec's factory, said being off was demoralising

Factory worker Debbie Welland, who has worked at the plant for 17 years, said being on 80% pay had been tough during a cost-of-living crisis.

"It's hard being off knowing that it's a reduction in pay," she said, describing her time at home as "boring" and "demoralising".

Ms Welland said her sons, who also work in the supply chain and both have families of their own, would have to work overtime to make back their lost income.

"I'm glad to be back so that I can help them out a bit more," she said.

Benjamin Brindley said he got bored after the first week of furlough

Benjamin Brindley, a continuous improvement engineer, was laid off for about four weeks.

"The novelty of being at home wears off pretty quick," he said. "The boredom did start to kick in I'd say after week one."

He added he had felt worried his job was "in the firing line".

"I'm glad to be back and able to do anything, really," he said.

Simon Wahab, who works for Seva, part of the JLR logistics centre in Solihull, said he had received basic pay for the last five weeks, but lost his shift allowance.

"It's been challenging, losing money," he said. "It's hard to keep on top of the bills because everything's going up in price."

Simon Wahab has struggled on less pay than usual

Majit Mudhar, Evtec's IT manager, said the cyber-attack had been a "wake-up call" and the firm felt more needed to be done after a re-review of "current applications" and "security protocols".

"We've got a plan together to put that into place," he added. "The IT security needs to be at the top of the list."

He said Evtec had strengthened its firewalls, reviewed password management and reinforced its incident response plans.

IT manager Majit Mudhar has been working on improving Evtec's cyber-security

JLR has said its recovery programme was underway but warned the process of resuming car production would take several more weeks.