Vertu expects profit hit from JLR cyber attack

MAJOR car retailer Vertu says it could suffer up to a £5.5m hit on profits due to the fallout from Jaguar Land Rover's (JLR) forced factory shutdown.

- TOM KEIGHLEY Business writer [e-mail]

The Gateshead-based showroom operator said its adjusted pretax profit in September was impacted by £2m and that the full extent of the shock would depend on when JLR was back to normal trading.

Vertu operates 10 JLR dealership among its network of 191 sites, with some small-scale acquisitions due in the coming months. The high-profile cyber attack on JLR has halted production and caused problems in its supply chain, with Vertu saying it had been unable to register or deliver new vehicles in the key platechange month of September.

Bosses said the outage also impacted aftersales operations with diagnostics and parts ordering systems offline. The retailer said it was assessing the extent of losses and that it has a business interruption insurance in place which includes third-party system outages.

Investors on the London Stock Exchange were told that, excluding the impact of the JLR shutdown, its full year, underlying pretax profits are expected to be in line with expectations of between £26.5m to £27.5m.

In the six months to the end of August, it saw revenue grow to £2.51bn, compared with £2.47bn in the same period last year. Adjusted operating profit across the half year was down 6.1% to £31m.