Ahold Delhaize on Monday said it had shut down the websites of its retail banners after a cybersecurity incident on Sunday.
The websites of Food Lion, Hannaford, Stop & Shop and both Giant Food banners were all taken offline, and online grocery ordering and deliveries were suspended after a security issue in the Ahold Delhaize network, the company said.
The issue also impacted the company’s European websites, which include Albert Heijn, Delhaize, Etos, Gall & Gall and bol.com. The Zaandam, Netherlands-based company said it was taking some systems offline to shield against further disruption, but that all of its stores remained open.
“Our teams are taking steps to assess and mitigate the issue. This includes taking some systems offline to help protect them,” the company said in the statement. “Protecting our infrastructure in the best interest of our customers, associates and partners is a top priority.”
A spokesperson for the company’s U.S. operations declined to comment further.
The shutdown follows cyberattacks on other European retailers, including another incident on Sunday that caused the refrigerators at hundreds of supermarkets in France to heat up to about 50 degrees Celsius (about 122 degrees Fahrenheit) for about six hours, resulting in widespread food losses, according to reports.
Loyalty, apps also offline
Although Ahold Delhaize stores remained open, personal loyalty-based discounts and app-linked savings programs have been suspended, according to a report on Dutchnews.nl. The report also said that electronic shelf labels might show last week’s prices, meaning that prices at the register could be different from prices displayed at the shelf. The digital labels are currently in limited use in the company’s U.S. stores but are more widely used at its European banners.
Two British supermarket chains—Marks & Spencer and Co-op—were also recently hit with cyberattacks that forced them to shut down their digital operations.
Last year Ahold Delhaize revealed that a November 2024 cyberattack impacted more than 2 million customers at its U.S. stores. The retailer said the attack disrupted deliveries, payment processing, pharmacies and the online portals for its various banners. Last June, another major cybersecurity breach impacted the operations of grocery distributor UNFI.
