Whole Foods' primary distributor forced to shut down its systems after major cyberattack
United Natural Foods, Inc., one of America鈥檚 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.
鈥淲e have identified unauthorized activity in our systems and have proactively taken some systems offline while we investigate,鈥� the company said in a statement to CNN. UNFI has also contacted law enforcement for assistance and it鈥檚 鈥渁ssessing the unauthorized activity鈥� 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 鈥渢emporary disruptions to the company鈥檚 business operations.鈥�
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鈥檛 immediately respond to comment about how it鈥檚 being affected.
On social media, some Whole Foods customers reported they saw empty shelves. A shows an empty refrigerator with a sign reading the store is 鈥渆xperiencing a temporary out of stock issue for some products.鈥� Another post shows to stores.
UNFI signed a with Whole Foods last year, extending the partnership through 2032.
UNFI said that it鈥檚 鈥渨orking closely鈥� with its suppliers and clients to 鈥渕inimize disruption as much as possible.鈥� Shares fell more than 6% in early trading.