Cyber attack at Lion NZ squeezes liquor supply lines to pubs and bottle stores

Tuesday, 9 June 2020

Publican Bertie Burleigh, owner of New Plymouth's Peggy Gordons Celtic Bar, says he is unable to order any supplies from Lion NZ due to an IT issue. (file photo)

Liquor giant Lion NZ has suffered a cyber attack which has affected supply lines to pubs and bottles stores across the country.

The company's phones, emails and online ordering system is believed to have been compromised by the issue.

It is understood customers are unable to order stock.

Tuesday marked New Zealand's first day at coronavirus alert level 1 and a return to life without the social distancing rules which had previously prevented bars and night clubs from operating.

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External relations director Sara Tucker confirmed in a written statement the company had experienced a cyber incident which impacted its business in NZ and Australia.

'As a precaution we have shut down our IT systems, which has caused disruption to suppliers and customers,' Tucker said.

'Although our ability to process and deliver orders has been significantly affected we have teams working round the clock and have started to deliver some orders.'

Tucker said there was no evidence of any type of data breaches to date but investigations were ongoing.

'We are working with expert advisors to address the issue and will provide further updates when we can.'

She thanked the company's customers and suppliers for their patience.

New Plymouth publican Bertie Burleigh said the issue would have an immediate effect on bars and wholesalers.

'It will be affecting them right now,' Burleigh said.

'A lot of businesses won't be carrying much stock at the moment because we didn't know when we would move to level 1.'

Burleigh became aware of the issue, which he believed was also affecting the Australian branch of the company, first thing on Monday morning.

'The whole of the Lion Breweries system was out of action,' Burleigh said.

'You couldn't phone or place an order online.'

None of the company's telephone numbers in New Zealand or Australia were able to be accessed by Stuff on Tuesday afternoon.

Its emails were not working and even an attempt to contact a member of its communications staff through a personal email address failed.

However just before 6pm a response to questions about the situation was received by Stuff.

One year ago the company, owned by Japanese brewer Kirin Holdings, underwent a multi-million-dollar IT transformation project.

The two-year project centralised the business' 500 applications into one cloud-based platform and involved 550 people from global team.

Lion - Beer, Spirits and Wine New Zealand offers a range of domestic beers including Speights, Steinlager, Lion Red and Brown as well as international brands including Guinness, Becks, Corona Extra and Budweiser.

The company also carries a range of wines and spirits.