Introduction: JLR sales hit by cyber attack disruption
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
India’s Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles has lifted the bonnet on the impact of the cyber attack which disrupted Jaguar Land Rover’s factories last autumn.
JLR’s retail sales tumbled by a quarter in the October-December period – down 25.1% year-on-year to 79,600 units – new data shows, following the hack at the end of August.
Wholesale production saw an even greater fall – it fell by 43%, compared with a year ago, to 59,200 units.
Tata states that JLR’s sales were “impacted by cyber incident as previously indicated”, adding:
Production returned to normal levels only by mid‑November post the cyber incident. Due to this and also the time required to distribute vehicles globally once produced, wholesale and retail volumes reduced on a quarter‑on‑quarter and year‑on‑year basis.
The cyber attack forced production to be suspended across JLR’s factories through September, and pushed the carmaker into a quarterly loss of almost £500m.
But the hackers weren’t the only problem facing JLR – its sales to the US were also hit by “incremental US tariffs impacting JLR’s US exports, continued to impact volumes”.
As a result, retail sales to North America fell by 37.7%. They were also down 13.3% in the UK, by more than a quarter in Europe, and by 18.4% in China.
Sales volumes were also hit by the planned wind down of legacy Jaguar models ahead of the launch of the new Jaguar design which prompted a backlash at the end of 2024.
The agenda
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8am GMT: UK grocery inflation data for December
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9am GMT: Eurozone service sector PMI report
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9.30am GMT: UK service sector PMI report
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2.45pm GMT: US service sector PMI report
Key events
Next lifts FTSE 100 to new record high
Next’s shares have jumped at the start of trading after it raised its profit forecasts this morning, lifting London’s stock market to a new peak.
Next are the top riser on the FTSE 100 index, up 2.8% at £139.75 each.
That has helped to push the FTSE 100 to a new intraday high of 10,056 points at the start of trading in the City, with mining companies also among the risers.
That’s slightly higher than last Friday’s previous peak, when the index rose over the 10,000-point mark for the first time.
Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says:
“Next’s Christmas trading update gave investors plenty to be jolly about, capping a solid year 2025 for the UK fashion powerhouse. In the nine weeks to 27 December, full-price sales rose by 10.6%, ahead of the group’s previous upgraded guidance for 7.0% growth. The better-than-expected finish to 2025 saw the UK fashion powerhouse upgrade its profit guidance once again. Full-year pre-tax profits are now expected to come in at around £1.15bn, marking the third profit upgrade in a little over five months.
Unwrapping some of the headline figures, sales growth continues to be driven by its online channel, which already accounts for more than half of group sales. Within that, overseas sales have continued to grow at an eyewatering pace, up 38.3% over the festive period, helping to buoy the more sluggish growth of just 1.4% in its retail stores.
Next also gave a sneak peek into its outlook for the new financial year, with pre-tax profits forecast to grow by 4.5% to around £1.2bn. The slowdown comes as this year’s numbers have benefitted heavily from both favourable summer weather and major disruption at M&S. But with Next’s track record of under-promising and over-delivering, this growth target looks a touch conservative. Next remains one of the brightest sparks in the UK retail scene, and there’s potential for more success if it can continue nailing its overseas expansion.”
FTSE 100 CEOs earn more than average worker’s yearly pay by noon today
Lauren Almeida
The bosses of FTSE 100 companies will have made more money in 2026 before midday than the average worker will all year, according to figures laying bare the yawning income gap.
Median annual pay for FTSE 100 chief executives is £4.4m, the High Pay Centre thinktank calculated, 113 times higher than the £39,039 earned by the median full-time worker.
That means UK bosses will exceed the average annual pay of staff in less than 29 hours of work, or by about 11.30am on Tuesday if they started work on Friday 2 January.
The median salary for FTSE 100 chief executives equates to £1,353.23 an hour, or nearly £23 a minute. The High Pay Centre assumed that those bosses work about 62.5 hours a week.
UK car sales top 2m in 2025 as Chinese brands boom
Jasper Jolly
A rise in the popularity of Chinese brands pushed total car sales in the UK above the 2m mark last year for the first time since 2019, figures reveal.
Chinese companies accounted for 9.7% of the 2m new car registrations in the UK in 2025, or 196,000 vehicles, according to preliminary figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group. That was nearly double the 4.9% market share achieved by the country’s carmakers in 2024.
Electric car sales rose by nearly a quarter year on year to a record of 473,000, making up 23.4% of the overall market, four percentage points higher than last year. That helped the average emissions of new cars sold in the UK to fall by 10% compared with the year before.
Mike Hawes, the SMMT chief executive, said 2025 sales represented a “reasonably solid result amid tough economic and geopolitical headwinds”.
Next: Pressures on UK employment will hit consumer economy
Next have also warned that UK consumer spending in 2026 could be hit by rising unemployment.
In today’s financial statement they give several reasons why growth in the next finanial year will slow, including:
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In the UK, growth in the current year was boosted by very favourable summer weather, competitor disruption and improved stock levels. So we will face tough UK comparatives, particularly in the first half.
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Continuing pressures on UK employment are likely to filter through into the consumer economy as the year progresses.
Next beats expectations over Christmas
UK retailer Next has beaten expectations over the crucial Christmas trading period.
Next has reported that its full-price sales rose by 10.6% in the the nine weeks to 27 December, ahead of its own guidance for the quarter of +7.0%.
Next says UK sales in those weeks were up 5.9%, a slowdown on earlier in the year, while international sales jumped by 38.3%.
With sales £51m higher than expected, Next has raised its guidance for full year profit before tax this financial year by £15m to £1,150m.
Tata Motors shares fall
Shares in Tata Motors have fallen by 2% today, as traders digest the drop in JLR’s sales in the last three months of 2025.
Introduction: JLR sales hit by cyber attack disruption
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
India’s Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles has lifted the bonnet on the impact of the cyber attack which disrupted Jaguar Land Rover’s factories last autumn.
JLR’s retail sales tumbled by a quarter in the October-December period – down 25.1% year-on-year to 79,600 units – new data shows, following the hack at the end of August.
Wholesale production saw an even greater fall – it fell by 43%, compared with a year ago, to 59,200 units.
Tata states that JLR’s sales were “impacted by cyber incident as previously indicated”, adding:
Production returned to normal levels only by mid‑November post the cyber incident. Due to this and also the time required to distribute vehicles globally once produced, wholesale and retail volumes reduced on a quarter‑on‑quarter and year‑on‑year basis.
The cyber attack forced production to be suspended across JLR’s factories through September, and pushed the carmaker into a quarterly loss of almost £500m.
But the hackers weren’t the only problem facing JLR – its sales to the US were also hit by “incremental US tariffs impacting JLR’s US exports, continued to impact volumes”.
As a result, retail sales to North America fell by 37.7%. They were also down 13.3% in the UK, by more than a quarter in Europe, and by 18.4% in China.
Sales volumes were also hit by the planned wind down of legacy Jaguar models ahead of the launch of the new Jaguar design which prompted a backlash at the end of 2024.
The agenda
-
8am GMT: UK grocery inflation data for December
-
9am GMT: Eurozone service sector PMI report
-
9.30am GMT: UK service sector PMI report
-
2.45pm GMT: US service sector PMI report
