Alex Tora knew his fish and chip shop in Solihull, England, and needed a boost after the pandemic, so he began offering discounts to future Jaguar Land Rover plant workers. It was a business master stroke. Many of his clients now come from company ranks, getting lunch or picking up “fish dinner” on their way home.
Or at least they were – until the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) stopped after a catastrophic hack in late August.
“We’re down by about 30%,” Tora told CNN about the acquisition since. “We have a strong connection with Land Rover, and most customers are regulars and come two or three times a week or deliver during breaks.
JLR said it shut down all systems around the world following a cyber attack on August 31st. Meanwhile, he said that in some manufacturing industries to reopen in the “next days,” most factories will remain offline.
Hackers whose identity has not been confirmed are targeting JLR, a UK multinational and global powerhouse owned by the TATA Group. It is India’s largest conglomerate with over 1 million employees and annual revenue of $180 billion.
But it’s local businesses like Tora’s Fish Shop that are in a pinch.
CNN spoke to more than 12 shops and small businesses in the area around the factory, saying that everything was affected and that they lost 15% to 50% of their habit in a few weeks since the hack.
Nemal Shanmuganathan owns the branch of One Stop, a convenience store chain. Sitting across the road from the factory, he is the closest place for plant workers to get snacks, drinks, newspapers and cigarettes.
However, at this point, the streets have been abandoned, and Shanmuganatan calculates that he is losing about 300 pounds ($404) per day. It’s about 15% of his usual sales.
“That’s a problem. We’re losing sales, but we still have wages to pay, bills, I have mortgages. If we get back tomorrow or next week, it’s fine.
On a recent afternoon, the town centre of Solihull was full of shoppers and bustled the Tudor period buildings that stand proudly in their hearts. The soft, early autumn sun passes through the trees lined with pedestrian streets, with leaves in rich shades of yellow and orange. Union Jack Bunting flaps his wings over his head.
Solihull’s retail and hospitality sector is booming, as other UK towns and cities see their boulevards decline. Branches of major restaurant and store chains have become mushrooms around the center in recent years, and Apple expanded its stores significantly earlier this year, as local malls become the go-to area.
Many say that much of this success comes from JLR and the broader automotive industry.
The West Midlands, particularly Birmingham’s biggest city, have been England’s manufacturing centre for decades before its sharp decline in the second half of the 20th century when factories began to close.
“The 1970s and early 1980s were particularly difficult. Hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost, widespread industrialization… (the region) had to reform itself,” said David Bailey, professor of business economics at the Birmingham School of Business and an expert in industrial and regional policy.
The JLR has been a major part of this reinvention, especially in the last 20 years that Ford sold to Tata Motors in 2008. Currently, the company is the only major automaker doing everything in the country, from design and development to prototyping, building, sales and service post-sale.
“It’s been doing very well in recent years and is the UK’s biggest car producer, so many of the jobs they support are paid very high. They are well-paid manufacturing, and many of these aren’t that many.
JLR says it employs 10,700 employees at its Solihull facility, employing about a third of the UK’s total workforce, and builds new cars every 90 seconds.
To maintain this fierce production speed, the company relies on the close supply chain of most local companies that can produce and deliver parts on a just-in-time basis. The ecosystem supports an estimated 100,000 jobs in the region, according to the West Midlands Combined Authority.
Think Tank Oxford Economics calculated that JLR donated about £8.7 billion to the region in 2024, accounting for a whopping 4.7% of the total regional economy.
Steve Whitmarsh, CEO of Solihull-based company Multifleet Vehicle Management, said his business is worried about the broader effect, despite not being directly affected by the shutdown.
Whitmarsh’s Company offers vehicle fleet services, including selling and leasing cars, managing the company’s fleet, and promoting rentals. The company does not serve JLR itself, but it serves JLR suppliers and other contractors in the region. If they start to have cash flow issues, Whitmarsh will see it on his balance sheet as well.
“I don’t know if people understand how Solihull depends on employment from JLR. Most people have relatives or friends who work for Land Rover,” he told CNN.
“If the worst happens to JLR, Solihull is hollow on the current scale in terms of the economy and we don’t think about what will happen if it suddenly closes overnight. We’ve seen the effects of the Longbridge closure,” he said.
“It took me 20 years to recover, so it’s going to take me 20 years to recover here. If there’s no more, I’m sure,” he said.
Raj Kandola of the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce said suppliers and businesses further down the chain are the most vulnerable to the knock-on effect of shutdowns.
He said a recent survey of local businesses gave hints on the extent of the damage. Of the 84 respondents, more than three-quarters said it had a negative effect, and almost half said it was important.
Kandola warned that the survey was conducted over a very short period of time and limited participants, but said the outcome was worried as 84 companies alone employ around 30,000 people.
“We asked what they did to alleviate some of these situations, and 35% said they reduced staff time… and this is just the tip of the iceberg. The longer this lasts, the more difficult they face,” he said.
The UK government announced this week that it will undertake JLR’s £1.5 billion loan guarantee.
However, CNN has spoken to several companies in the JLR supply chain, from large multinational companies that provide parts directly to companies to small suppliers and subcontractors, with the majority saying they don’t expect the money to flow down on them anytime soon.
They didn’t want it to be identified directly, fearing that approval of financial issues could hurt future businesses. But everyone said they were forced to make at least some painful decisions.
The large supplier employing hundreds of people in the area told CNN that it would need to fire most of its temporary workers and reduce the shifts in full-time employees. Another company said the majority of workers must be sent home after demand for the product collapses. Employees are still being paid, but rates are being reduced.
The small subcontractor said he was told not to expect new business from JLR until at least the end of the year. One business owner said that while JLR received government-sponsored loans, he was told by the bank that the house should be set up as collateral to gain access to emergency loans.
West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker, who worked with the government on the JLR Support Package, told CNN he was also most concerned about small and medium-sized businesses in the supply chain.
“My priorities with the government were to ensure that we can do what we can to protect the supply chain, the work of small and medium-sized businesses, and I’m working really hard to truly understand where shutdowns have the most important impact,” he said.
Tora, the owner of the fishmonger, said that JLR has received a £1.5 billion loan but does not believe he will receive the help of his business.
Tora has worked in food and hospitality for a long time, but four years ago he was finally able to open his own restaurant. He has overcome the pandemic. He built a great customer base, served award-winning food and did well.
He said he was counting down a few days before the factory opened again and things returned to normal.
“It’s been a difficult time right now. Do you know? Everyone is struggling with inflation, the bill. I’m telling myself that I’m going to resume next week, next week, next week,” he said.
Five weeks have passed. And I’m waiting.
