Christmas crunch time for JLR supply chain – manufacturing expert

JLR’s Tier 2, 3 and 4 suppliers face yet another significant hurdle over the festive break as cashflow problems from the 2025 cyber attack are starting to bite.

Johanthan Dudley (pictured), head of manufacturing and SME Corporates at Crowe UK, warned that the two-week shutdown could spell the end for some smaller suppliers who are still awaiting payments to filter down the supply chain.

He said: “It appears that Tier 1 suppliers are mostly back in production, and we hear that JLR were able to fund payments to them from their own resources, rather than take up the government-backed loan assistance.

“But for some further down the supply chain, in particular SMEs, it could be too late.”

Mr Dudley said that businesses were being hit by the double whammy of quarterly rent payments falling due and the Christmas two week shutdown.

He added: “The coming days and weeks are likely to be confronting, and it will become evident which businesses in the JLR supply chain have managed to weather the storm.”

He said that there were already reports of some companies taking advice on their potentially insolvent position and some global suppliers had taken the JLR stoppage as a reason to withdraw from the UK totally.

“Global organisations, who had been manufacturing in the UK, are acutely conscious of the very high industrial energy costs in this country, particularly when compared to other countries.

“And this makes manufacturing in the UK very expensive.”

He advises companies that are seeing signs of cashflow problems starting to impact their business to take professional advice as soon as possible.

“There are alternatives. New equity, other sources of investment and obviously restructuring are all options that should be considered, but they need to be examined in the round in order to achieve long term, lasting solutions,” he said.

Businesses seeking advice on managing through the coming weeks can contact [email protected].