The luxury carmaker JLR, owned by India’s Tata Motors, said on Tuesday it had begun restarting some of its operations after being forced into a near six-week shutdown caused by the cyberattack. The disruption, which crippled order and delivery systems across its network, has had a knock-on effect on dealers such as Vertu that depend on JLR’s supply chain.
Vertu, which runs 10 JLR dealerships across the United Kingdom, disclosed that around £2 million of the impact was felt in September alone. The full-year financial effect, it added, would depend on how quickly JLR restores full system functionality.
“We are currently working with our insurance brokers and insurers to assess a potential claim under our insurance policy, which extends to the impact of third-party systems outages,” said Robert Forrester, Vertu’s Chief Executive Officer.
Despite the disruption, the company expects to meet market forecasts for annual adjusted pre-tax profit excluding the JLR-related losses, with analysts projecting around £27.2 million for the year.
For the six months ended August 31, Vertu reported adjusted pre-tax profit of £20 million, representing a nearly 10% decline from the previous year, reflecting both the cyberattack’s ripple effects and a more challenging retail environment for UK auto dealers.
The JLR cyber incident has highlighted the growing vulnerability of automotive supply chains to digital threats, as manufacturers and dealers increasingly rely on interconnected systems for sales, logistics, and aftersales operations.