Asahi ‘handwriting orders’ following devastating cyberhack
Major Japanese retailers have warned customers of likely Asahi shortages after hackers hit the brewer’s ordering and delivering system earlier this week. As a result, most of the Asahi Group’s factories having been at a standstill since Monday.
On Monday 29 September Asahi issued a statement announcing it had experienced a systems failure as a result of cyber-hacking, saying “there is currently no estimated timeline for recovery.”
It comes as a particularly hard blow given that Asahi had identified a cyber-hack as one of its biggest risks as a company in the medium to short-term. In a report released last year the brewer revealed it was assessing the maintenance of its security system in order to reduce the risk, predicting that an attack could lead to disruptions in business, create cashflow issues and damage the brand.
Coming to pass
Some of this appears to be coming to pass as this week major Japanese retailers prepared customers for a shortage of Asahi products on shelf. Family-Mart, one of Japan’s largest convenience stores, told consumers it is “working with Asahi to resume the sale of products” but as the brewer has temporarily suspended new orders and shipments, there is currently “no prospect of resumption.”
“We sincerely apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused,” Family-Mart added.
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Among the other retailers to caution of a shortage is Japanese supermarket Life Cooperation, and Lawson, which revealed it plans to stock up on alternative products to make up for the lack of Asahi products.
Hand-written orders
It’s not only Japan’s off-trade that is feeling the fall-out of Asahi’s shutdown. Japanese restaurants, bars and stores are also running low on beer and other beverages from Asahi Group. These include its flagship Super Dry beer and Nikka Whisky.
According to Reuters, Asahi began processing orders for some products on Wednesday by visiting customers in person and handwriting orders. Asahi said it is prioritising outgoing shipments for the first batch of manually filled orders, as it continues to work with authorities to investigate the cyberattack.
Japan accounts for about half of the brewer’s total sales. Asahi’s European operations, including the UK, are not affected.
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