Register to get free articles
Want unlimited access? View Plans
Already have an account? Sign in
Co-op has made the decision to prioritise sending grocery supplies to rural and island-based stores in the aftermath of a disruptive cyber attack that has destabilised its supply chains across the country.
The news comes as concerns have been raised about shortages in remote communities following the attack, particularly for some stores across the Scottish isles, which are experiencing low supplies of essential goods.
Due to how rural these communities are, Co-op is often its only grocery provider, and as a result, the retailer wants to focus on diverting essentials to these locations to prevent shortages and long-distance travel for residents.
As part of its plan to prioritise remote locations, the retailer has instructed suppliers to halt deliveries to its warehouses due to ongoing technical problems with its Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system.
These issues have been blamed for the disruption to stock management and deliveries, which have resulted in empty shelves and shortages of essential goods like milk, vegetables and toilet paper in some stores.
However, the Co-op’s decision to prioritise remote locations for supplies could worsen these shortages in urban store branches.
A significant cyber attack continues to impact the group, necessitating the shutdown of multiple systems and resulting in the theft of customer data. This incident, which has affected both internal operations and customer service, has been confirmed to be more serious than initially anticipated.
In a statement, chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq wrote: “The criminals that are perpetrating these attacks are highly sophisticated and our colleagues are working tirelessly to do three things: (1) protect and defend our Co-op, (2) fully understand the extent of the impact caused by the attack and (3) provide much needed information to the authorities that may help them with their investigations.
“Actively managing the severity of the attack has meant shutting down some of our systems to protect the organisation. That said, our front-line colleagues are focused on minimising any disruption that might be experienced by our members and customers.”
She added: “As previously communicated, we have established that the cyber criminals were able to access a limited amount of member data. This is obviously extremely distressing for our colleagues and members, and I am very sorry this happened.”
