UK’s Slow Economic Growth Due in Part to Jaguar Land Rover Cyber Attack: Treasury Chief

Jaguar Land Rover was forced to pause production in early September for more than a month after it had been impacted by a ‘cyber incident.’

British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves during a press conference following her statement to the House of Commons on the findings of the Treasury audit into the state of the public finances in London, on July 29, 2024. Lucy North/PA Wire

The UK’s economic growth slowed in the previous quarter of the year in part due to a major cyber attack on automaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said on Nov. 13.

The treasury chief made the remarks after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.1 percent between July and September over the preceding three-month period, down on the previous quarter’s 0.3 percent growth.

During an interview with UK media company ITN, she said the figures for this quarter “clearly reflect what happened” at Jaguar Land Rover.

“A massive cyberattack, the biggest cyberattack that this country has ever experienced, and as a result, car manufacturing fell by almost 30 percent in September,” Reeves said.

“Jaguar Land Rover is now back up and running, in part because of the support this government put in, both to help with the cyber attack itself and also to support the supply chain, so that business has now begun car production again.”

The ONS on Nov. 13 published its GDP estimates and said that production fell by 2 percent, with this decrease being “largely because of a fall in the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers.”

The UK statistics agency said the manufacturing of these items fell by 28.6 percent, which resulted in a negative contribution of 0.17 percentage points to the fall in GDP in September.

Liz McKeown, the ONS director of economic statistics, said in a Nov. 13 statement posted on X that growth “slowed further in the third quarter of the year with both services and construction weaker than in the previous period.”

In a follow-up post, McKeown added: “Across the quarter as a whole manufacturing drove the weakness in production. There was a particularly marked fall in car production in September, reflecting the impact of a cyber incident, as well as a decline in the often-erratic pharmaceutical industry.”

Jaguar Land Rover Revenue Down 24 Percent

On Sept. 2, Jaguar Land Rover said in a statement that it was forced to pause production after it had been impacted by a cyber incident. The company said it took “immediate action to mitigate its impact by proactively shutting down our systems.”

The closures lasted for more than a month, with a phased restart of operations announced on Oct. 7.

On Nov. 14, the company said in a statement that its production has now returned to normal levels, but stated that its financial performance had been impacted in the previous quarter, in part as a result of the cyber attack.

In its financial reporting for the three months to Sept. 30, Jaguar Land Rover said that revenue was 4.9 billion pounds (about $6.5 billion), which was down 24 percent year over year.

“Revenue was impacted by the production stoppages JLR initiated in September following the cyber incident and the planned wind down of legacy Jaguar model,” the company said.

It also revealed it had 196 million pounds (about $258 million) in extra costs linked to the cyber attack.

Logos of Jaguar and Land-Rover outside a car dealer in Brussels on May 28, 2020. Yves Herman/Reuters

Jaguar Land Rover CEO Adrian Mardell said in a Nov. 14 statement that the company’s performance in the second quarter of this financial year “was impacted by significant challenges, including a cyber incident that stopped our vehicle production in September and the impact of US tariffs.”

“JLR has made strong progress in recovering its operations safely and at pace following the cyber incident. In our response we prioritised client, retailer and supplier systems and I am pleased to confirm that production of all our luxury brands has resumed,” Mardell said.