Food distribution giant United Natural Food (UNFI) said it is making “great progress” in recovering from cyberattacks that occurred almost two weeks ago as North American grocery stores rely on distributors continue to report food shortages.
In its Sunday update, UNFI said it is restoring the electronic ordering system that customers use to place orders for grocery stores and supermarkets.
The company, which offers more than 30,000 stores across the US and Canada with fresh ingredients and other products, was hit by a cyber attack on June 5th, and the company disclosed it a few days later.
UNFI has yet to explain the nature of the cyberattacks, but last week informed investors that it had shut down the entire network to contain the incident. Continued suspensions prevent the company from meeting and distributing customer orders on a large scale.
One of the biggest grocery stores affected is Whole Foods, which relies on UNFI as the “major distributor.” Several whole food establishments, including those visited by TechCrunch last week and other parts of the New York area, have experienced shelves shortage amid UNFI suspensions. A California Whole Foods employee told TechCrunch about the store's supply issues, saying he hadn't seen some of the products in a few days.
Whole Foods previously told TechCrunch that it was working to recover its shelves “as soon as possible,” but it didn't tell them when shipping would return to normal.
People who work in local grocery stores and large chain supermarkets tell TechCrunch that they continue to experience varying degrees of confusion. Some have said that other distributors provide some supplies, while others have reported issues with product ordering from UNFI.
The suspension also affects grocery stores run by active US Department of Defense officials and retired veterans. One employee of the Defense Committee-run grocery store said they were seeing empty shelves and cargo delays.
Defence Committee spokesman Kevin Robinson confirmed that UNFI cyberattacks have affected dozens of stores.
“The incident affected the delivery of multiple grocery chains, including 53 Defense Committee (DECA) stores,” Robinson said. “The DECA supply chain team is working closely with UNFI to implement manual workarounds that effectively minimize disruption within the store.”
UNFI does not yet provide a recovery timeline.
Do you know more about cyberattacks in UNFI? Are you a customer of a company affected by the confusion? You can safely contact this reporter via a message encrypted with Zackwhittaker.1337.
The story was first released on June 16th, with details updated on June 17th.