In brief
Asahi has restarted production at its six breweries in Japan after a cyber-attack forced a complete shutdown. The attack impacted ordering and delivery systems, leading to warnings of beer shortages from retailers like 7-Eleven and FamilyMart. While Asahi is working with cybersecurity experts to restore full operations, the breweries and soft drink plants are currently not fully operational. Asahi is also the owner of well-known global beer brands including Peroni and Grolsch.
Asahi has partially restarted production at all six of its breweries in Japan after it was forced to close them due to a cyber-attack.
Several major shops in Japan including 7-Eleven and FamilyMart had warned last week that they were running low on stocks of the beer after the hack affected Asahi Group's ordering and delivery systems in the country.
Asahi is the biggest brewer in Japan, but it also makes soft drinks and food products, as well as supplying own-brand goods to other retailers.
The partially restarted breweries produce best-seller Asahi Super Dry, but the firm is also restarting plants that produce food and soft drinks.
The cyber-attack is the latest to have affected operations at major firms, with carmaker Jaguar Land Rover still struggling to recover from an attack that shut down production.
Asahi Group also owns Fullers in the UK and global brands including Peroni, Pilsner Urquell, and Grolsch. However, only Asahi's operations in Japan - which account for about half its sales - have been affected by the attack.
Asahi said the reopened beer plants in Japan were not yet fully operational, and that two of its soft drinks factories that have partially reopened were also not running at full capacity.
It added there were five soft drinks factories that will resume gradually in accordance with shipments. All seven of its food plants have resumed operations, though they are also not yet fully operational.
Asahi mentioned that the production systems at the factories themselves had not been affected by the cyber-attack, but they had to halt production because they could not process orders and shipments.
On Friday, Asahi stated it was unable to provide a clear timeline for recovery but that it was collaborating with external cybersecurity experts to restore its systems as soon as possible.
