Vertu Motors warns of up to £5.5m hit to yearly profits from JLR shutdown

Car dealership group Vertu Motors has warned it could face a hit to its yearly profits of up to £5.5 million as a result of “major disruption” to its Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) showrooms, after the luxury carmaker was targeted by hackers.

It was “disappointing for the industry” to experience issues during September, a key month for vehicle number plates being changed, Vertu’s boss said.

JLR was forced to halt production at its factories across the UK after a serious cyber attack which has been damaging for the carmaker and its supply chain.

It is set to resume some manufacturing operations on Wednesday.

Vertu, which is one of the UK’s biggest car retailers, said it was expecting a one-off hit of up to £5.5 million to its adjusted pre-tax profit for the year, depending on when JLR’s systems and trading are restored.

Its trading performance in September was impacted by £2 million due to the disruption.

Adjusted pre-tax profits came in at £20 million for the six months to the end of August, a 10th lower than the same period last year.

Meanwhile, Vertu reported record-high half-year sales amounting to £2.51 billion, up from £2.47 billion the prior year.

The volume of battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales soared by 82.4%, compared like-for-like with last year.

Vertu said this was partly due to the cars becoming more affordable, with over 40 models now available under £30,000, and some options under £20,000.

New BEV grants announced by the Government in the summer are set to boost demand for the models over the second half of the year.

However, Vertu stressed that the car market was continuing to face “upheaval” as a result of the Government’s zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, as well as economic and political uncertainty weighing on consumer confidence.

The ZEV mandate requires 28% of all UK new car sales to be BEVs in 2025, rising to 80% by 2030.

Vertu said the requirements continue to “weigh heavily on both manufacturers and retailers and has resulted in low overall volumes in the new vehicle market in the UK”.

“The group has performed well despite continued upheaval in the new car market due to the Government’s policy to electrify the UK car parc,” chief executive Robert Forrester said.

“It was disappointing for the industry to face major disruption across the JLR network following a cyber-attack on the manufacturer during the key plate-change month of September.

“I was in awe of the way that our teams reacted to the disruption on customers and to minimise the impact in our 10 JLR dealerships, with the full support of JLR which has responded admirably.

“Whilst the situation is fluid, it appears to be easing in recent days.”

He added that the company was assessing the possibility of making a claim under its insurance policy, which extends to third-party system outages.