Suppliers urged to take part in new JLR survey

A new survey of companies in the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) supply chain has been launched to ensure West Midlands firms are having their voices heard. The Black Country Chamber of Commerce, Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce and Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce want to find out how businesses are managing in the aftermath of the large-scale cyberattack that hit the automotive giant at the start of September, and led to the company halting operations for around a month. While a phased return to production began earlier this month, the company is still not working back at full capacity.

The three Chambers representing businesses across the West Midlands and Warwickshire conducted a survey at the height of the crisis to find out how suppliers were faring and are now following that up to gauge the latest sentiment. The questions focus on the financial pressures suppliers are under and what support is still required.

Ongoing issues
Black Country Chamber of Commerce CEO Sarah Moorhouse said: “Our members are continually telling us about the ongoing issues they are still facing. By conducting this new survey, it means we can feed critical, up-to-date information back to the Government. This will help us keep up the pressure to ensure that the right support is getting to those who need it most and, importantly, that it is at a level that will keep Tier Ones and the downstream supply chain going until operations get back to normal.”

Corin Crane, the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce‘s CEO, added: “Our initial survey had 84 responses from firms in the supply chain which covered 29,700 employees in the region. Nearly half told us that they faced serious financial repercussions and while it is great news that JLR has begun operations again, the crisis isn’t over.”

Raj Kandola, acting deputy CEO of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, said: “We felt that, as the three Chambers who represent businesses across the region, we should go back out to the suppliers and find out what, if anything, has changed for them in the past couple of weeks and the pressures they are under.”

The survey is available here.