Cyberattack set to cost Ahold Delhaize up to €250m in sales
The owner of Albert Heijn expects its fourth-quarter operating income to fall by €75m to €100m after systems were taken offline last month, leaving shops with empty shelves.
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Ahold Delhaize, the owner of Albert Heijn, Etos, Gall & Gall and bol, expects fourth-quarter sales to be €200m to €250m lower because of last month's cyberattack. The company announced on Wednesday that operating income will be €75m to €100m lower as a result.
The attack caused major disruption at Albert Heijn and the group's other chains. As a precaution, Ahold Delhaize took a number of systems offline, including websites, apps and customer service. The websites and apps of several chains were unreachable for days, and ordering groceries online became difficult.
Several distribution centres also came to a halt, which left shops with empty shelves. Most of the disruption was resolved within two weeks, but the recovery is not yet fully complete.
In its quarterly results, presented on Wednesday, Ahold Delhaize said third-quarter sales grew by almost 2% to €23.1bn compared with a year earlier. Global online sales rose 8.2%.
Alongside the figures, Ahold Delhaize said it has reached an agreement to take over Tesco's supermarket activities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Regulators still have to approve the deal.
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Ahold Delhaize
Ahold Delhaize is an international food retail group with its head office in the Netherlands. It runs supermarket chains in Europe and the United States and owns the Dutch brands Albert Heijn, Etos, Gall & Gall and bol, the Netherlands' largest online retailer. Because it is one of the biggest employers and grocery sellers in the country, its results and operations are closely followed in Dutch business news.