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A member of cyber attack-hit Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) supply chain has told Sky News the government must act to safeguard the sector as it has seen no financial relief to date.
Mike Beese, who owns Walsall-based Genex UK, was speaking as an industry body complained that support revealed by the government last week was failing to reach suppliers.
While unveiling a £1.5bn loan guarantee for JLR last Saturday, Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle said it would “help support the supply chain and protect skilled jobs in the West Midlands, Merseyside and throughout the UK”.
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Many interpreted the liquidity offer as a bailout, of sorts, that JLR would draw down on and distribute to ease pressure on both direct and indirect suppliers – companies that employ around 200,000 people.
Businesses affected by the production shutdown are now arguing they need the support they thought they were being promised by Mr Kyle.
It is unclear how his department and the chancellor saw the loan guarantee working in practice.
For its part, JLR is understood to have not seen a need to finalise or draw on any such arrangement to date, as its direct suppliers – the companies it deals with – have continued to be paid through existing funds.
It expects that money to trickle down to lower tiers of that supply chain.
However, as the production shutdown enters its second month, there is no visibility on when JLR factories will get back to full speed.
Mr Beese said it was for this reason that the government had to intervene, potentially through a loan scheme for suppliers. “We need certainty,” he declared.
He said of his own customers: “We need that money to come in so we can pay our suppliers.”
Mr Beese added: “That money needs to cascade down the tiers [but] it’s not going to be enough and you’ve got to make that up at…
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