An Update on Stock Availability and Cyber-Attack Recovery.
Many Kingswells residents have likely noticed some empty shelves or found their favourite products missing at our local Co-op in recent weeks. While it may have been a bit frustrating, there’s an important reason behind the disruption—and we wanted to share some information to keep our community in the loop.
The Co-op has been affected by a malicious third-party cyber-attack, which impacted various systems across the organisation, including those used to manage stock and deliveries. As a precautionary measure, the company took swift action to restrict access to key systems to protect their operations and customer data.
The good news is that recovery is now underway, and improvements are already being seen. A spokesperson for the Co-op shared the following update:
“Following the malicious third-party cyber-attack, we took early and decisive action to restrict access to our systems in order to protect our Co-op.
We are now in the recovery phase and are taking steps to bring our systems gradually back online in a safe and controlled manner.
In our Food business:
- There will be improved stock availability in our Food stores and online from this weekend and we are working closely with our suppliers to restock our stores.
- Our stock ordering system is now fully online, and we have switched all our orders back to the normal supply processes and systems.
- All forms of payments including contactless, and chip and pin are working across our entire store estate.
We’d like to thank all our colleagues, members, partners and suppliers for their support so far. We will provide further updates to our members as we continue to make progress from this cyber-attack.”
So, if you’re heading to the shop and still notice a few gaps on the shelves, rest assured that things are moving in the right direction. Our local Co-op team has been working hard through a challenging time, and it’s a good reminder of how much we rely on them—not just for groceries, but for keeping a vital community service running.
Let’s continue showing them the support and patience they deserve as things return to normal.