Dive Brief:
- Food supplier United Natural Foods Inc. revealed in an SEC filing this month that the recent cyberattack that caused a temporary disruption in its operations will materially affect its quarterly earnings.
- The June 5 intrusion interrupted food supplies to grocery stores across the U.S., including Whole Foods locations, and forced the company to switch to manual order-processing procedures.
- The attack highlighted the supply chain risks facing the food and agriculture sector.
Dive Insight:
The cyberattack on UNFI led to “reduced sales volume and increased operational costs,” the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on June 21. Between those expenses and the cost of investigating and remediating the intrusion, UNFI said it “believes that the incident is reasonably likely to have a material impact on the Company’s net income/(loss) and adjusted EBITDA for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2025” compared to pre-hack estimates.
Despite this conclusion, however, UNFI said that the cyberattack is unlikely to “have a material impact on its financial condition or its ability to achieve its previously disclosed longer-term strategic and financial objectives.”
The food supplier expects its cybersecurity insurance policy to adequately cover the costs associated with the incident, according to the SEC filing, which added that UNFI “expects that the full claim and settlement process will extend into its 2026 fiscal year.”
UNFI “has safely restored the core systems that its customers and suppliers use for electronic ordering and invoicing, which has enabled business operations to normalize,” the company added. It said it was “regularly receiving and shipping products to retailers across its distribution network.”
In its SEC filing, UNFI said it will provide a financial update in July that highlights its “strong operating results” in the third and fourth quarters of the fiscal year, including the estimated impact of the cyberattack.
