New York
CNN
—
United Natural Foods, Inc., one America’s largest publicly traded health food wholesalers and the primary food distributor for Whole Foods, has taken some of its systems offline after a massive cyberattack.
“We have identified unauthorized activity in our systems and have proactively taken some systems offline while we investigate,” the company said in a statement to CNN. UNFI has also contacted law enforcement for assistance and it’s “assessing the unauthorized activity” and is working to its restore systems following the cyberattack.
In a regulatory filing Monday, UNFI said it became aware of an incident in its information technology systems on June 5, which is causing “temporary disruptions to the company’s business operations.”
The company makes private label, fresh and its own branded products and ships them to more than 30,000 grocery stores, including Whole Foods. The Amazon-owned company didn’t immediately respond to comment about how it’s being affected.
On social media, some Whole Foods customers reported they saw empty shelves. A post on Reddit shows an empty refrigerator with a sign reading the store is “experiencing a temporary out of stock issue for some products.” Another post shows smaller-than-usual deliveries to stores.
UNFI signed a new distribution agreement with Whole Foods last year, extending the partnership through 2032.
UNFI (UNFI) said that it’s “working closely” with its suppliers and clients to to “minimize disruption as much as possible.” Shares fell more than 6% in early trading.
