“It’s a real disaster” | A harmful safety breach for colaabor

Not only does the IT security breach in the Colaabor group give headache to its restaurateur customers during this period of construction holidays, but the Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville food wholesaler warns that it also risks having a significant financial impact.

“We are really in Petrin,” says a restaurateur of the North Shore who asks not to be appointed so as not to harm the agreements with his suppliers.

“It’s a real disaster. We are far from the big centers, which means that the challenge for us is incredible, ”he says.

Read “cybersecurity incident under survey at ColarBor”

“Normally, Colabor gives us three times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We had no delivery of the week and they told us that they would not deliver next Monday either, ”says this restaurateur.

This restaurateur adds that in full leave of the construction where restaurants in the area overflow, he had to leave the North Shore on Wednesday evening “after the dinner rush to arrive in Quebec at midnight” in order to fill his truck “as much as possible” so as not to be forced to close his restaurant this weekend. He also claims to have had to “deviate” the local grocery store this week.

A Tadoussac restaurateur also says he is touched by trouble at Colabor’s and having been forced to ask for other suppliers since Colabor said at the start of the week that a cybersecurity incident affects his technological systems.

The other grocers and wholesalers take advantage of it

Carl Desbiens, Deputy Director General at Distribution Côte-Nord, in Baie-Comeau, notes an increase in demand of 20 to 25 % this week for products that his customers order at home and at Colabor. “There are a lot of customers who have placed larger orders. »»

He mentions in passing that Colabor is also one of his suppliers. “We have been able to get supplies via another supplier. But it is sure it’s a big week, “he said, adding that Colarbor hasn’t given him anything from the week.

He usually said to receive four colaabor deliveries per week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

The owner of the Mermax food distributor, Pierre-Yves Lévesque, also confirms an increase in demand this week. A co -limited member, he could not obtain this week and therefore said he had lost sales.

“But we sold the protein that we had in stock that we did not sell and our turnover was higher in the end this week,” says the merchant of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.

He says that colaabor systems have been hacked and that Costco and other grocers present in Quebec certainly benefit from the situation.

“The misfortune of some makes others happy,” says Pierre-Yves Lévesque.

In the distributor FLB Food solutions, formerly known as Beauport fruits and vegetables, advisor Kim Lemay stresses that forty accounts have been opened this week in the wake of the seeds at Colaabor to allow new customers to place orders. “It’s a great record week,” she says.

The investigation continues

Colaabor told The press Thursday evening that an investigation is still underway and that its delivery activities have been able to resume “gradually” since Tuesday.

“Our teams are fully mobilized and we work in collaboration with our customers, especially in the catering sector, in order to restore all of our services as soon as possible,” said The press spokesperson Danielle Ste-Marie.

In the management report made public in the evening on Thursday on the sidelines of the deposit of spring quarterly financial performance, Colabor stresses that he does not yet know the extent, nature and overall impact of the incident on its activities, nor the extent to which customers, suppliers or employees have been consulted.

Colabor specifies in the document not yet to be able to establish the consequences of the incident on the results of the company for the current quarter, until the systems concerned are fully restored and the activities resume their normal course.

However, it is mentioned that due in particular to the cybersecurity incident, Colabor now expects to need a softening with regard to its financial ratios (that is to say, obtain changes to the borrowing conditions) in the next quarters as well as additional funds in order to be able to deal with its obligations for the next 12 months.

It is also specified that Colabor maintains a “variety of insurance covers”, including cyberassurance, and that management has already started interactions with its insurers.

Colaabor leaders must participate in a conference on the middle of the morning on Friday to discuss with financial analysts assigned to the company’s coverage.

The action of Colabor closed the session from Thursday to 95 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange, which gives a value of a hundred million dollars to the company.