Cyberattack cost Albert Heijn parent Ahold Delhaize estimated €250 million

Albert Heijn parent Ahold Delhaize expects its fourth-quarter revenue to be between €200 million and €250 million lower due to the cyberattack that took several of its brands offline for two weeks last month, the company said with its third-quarter results. Ahold Delhaize reported having a strong third quarter, but warned that fourth-quarter profits would be between €75 million and €100 million lower due to the cyberattack.

Ahold Delhaize took several of its systems offline last month following a cyberattack. In the Netherlands, this resulted in the websites, apps, and loyalty programs of Albert Heijn, Gall & Gall, and Etos not working. For nearly two weeks, Albert Heijn couldn’t deliver online orders, stock its shelves, or show correct prices on its in-store electronic price tags, among other things.

“In October, our business was impacted by a cybersecurity incident,” Ahold Delhaize CEO Frans Muller said. “While most of the disruption was contained within two weeks, work continues to fully restore our normal operations.”

“Reflecting these effects, we have updated our full-year outlook. We now anticipate underlying operating margin to approach 4.0% (previously around 4.0%) and diluted underlying earnings per share growth at constant exchange rates to be in the low-single-digits (previously mid- to high-single-digits).” Free cash flow expected to drop to around €2.1 billion (previously at least €2.3 billion).

In the third quarter, Ahold Delhaize generated revenue of €23.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.9 percent. The company’s operating profit rose by over 7 percent to €976 million.