IT outages at Ahold Delhaize may last another week

On Wednesday morning, the effects of the cyber incident at Ahold Delhaize were still being felt. According to European executive Margaret Versteden-van Duijn, it will take “a few days to a week” for everything to be restored.

First systems are being restarted

Ahold Delhaize is in the process of gradually restarting its IT systems following the incident that has been disrupting operations since Sunday afternoon. “The first systems being restarted are related to store inventory. Other systems, such as customer service, will follow. It will take at least a few days to a week before everything is fully restored.” That’s what Versteden-van Duijn, the former director of Albert Heijn in the Netherlands and CEO of Ahold Delhaize Europe & Indonesia since October 1, said Tuesday evening on Eva Jinek’s talk show on Dutch television.

The impact of the cyber crisis at Ahold Delhaize is most acutely felt in Europe at Albert Heijn, where e-commerce is down and shelves in some stores are empty because the supply systems have been disrupted. Getting logistics back on track is therefore the retailer’s top priority. The app, website, and delivery service are still not working at Albert Heijn. The retailer is attempting to avoid empty shelves by arranging additional deliveries. At Delhaize in Belgium, however, e-commerce is operational, and stores are being stocked based on previous orders.

On Tuesday, Ahold Delhaize announced that there are currently no indications that customer or company data was stolen in the incident. The retailer cannot yet confirm whether this was a cyberattack: the investigation is still ongoing.