Asahi Group recently reported that it plans to restart production, at least in part, at each of its six breweries across Japan. This decision follows a major cyber-attack which prompted the company to shut down all operations. The U.S. company officially denied production had been suspended. They still don’t know when they’ll be able to fully recover. The breach completely hampered Asahi’s ordering and delivery systems. As a result, leading convenience stores such as 7-Eleven and FamilyMart announced that they saw record depletion rates for Asahi’s beer.
The cyber-attack had resulted in a temporary closure of Asahi’s breweries. This widespread disruption didn’t just stop beer production; it caused shutdowns at the company’s food and soft drink factories as well. In reaction to the incident, Asahi has brought on outside cyber-security experts to work with Asahi’s internal staff to rapidly restore its systems.
While the breweries have partially restarted operations, they currently focus on producing Asahi Super Dry, one of the company’s flagship beers. All seven of Asahi’s food production plants have returned to plant, albeit not at full capacity. The company remains intensely focused on restoring full functionality companywide to all of its facilities.
Besides beer and food processing, Asahi runs five soft drinks plants. The automaker revealed that these plants will come online in a staggered reopening. They’ll manage to do so based on shipment schedules and at the same time still stabilize their systems post-attack.
The recent cyber-attack has rattled the Japanese market. Whether the actual supply is short or only feels that way, several major retailers are concerned about their rapidly decreasing inventory of Asahi products. Asahi remains committed to getting its operations back on track as soon as possible. Simultaneously, it puts an emphasis on the integrity and security of its systems.