European Supermarkets Suffer New Hit to Refrigeration Systems

By Andrea Figueras

Supermarkets across Europe have reported malfunctions in the refrigeration and freezing systems at some of their stores, leading to food spoilage weeks after a cyberattack hit shops in France.

Coop, a Swedish grocery chain, said that refrigeration systems were affected overnight into Monday. Seven stores were hit by the failure, which "was the result of a cyber incident involving unauthorized tampering with the cooling systems at these specific locations," it said.

Another Swedish grocer, ICA Gruppen, said it had been informed of an incident at a "small number of stores" that use an external supplier. The shops in question have connectivity outside ICA's central network, the company said, adding that it was providing support to the affected locations to help them handle the issue.

Belgium's Colruyt said that an incident was affecting the refrigeration systems of around five Spar grocery stores operated by independent franchisees, and that there were issues with different suppliers. The company said the incident had led to losses of food, and that it was working to resolve the issue.

"We are unable to provide numbers today, but any unnecessary food loss is too much food loss," Colruyt said.

Dutch multinational grocery-retail company Ahold Delhaize said an issue had affected the refrigeration systems in a number of Delhaize shops. "Our teams are working hard to fully assess the situation," it added.

The news comes just a few weeks after some French supermarket chains were affected by a similar problem, which caused a rapid rise in temperature in freezers and refrigerators.

The cybercrime section of the Paris prosecutors' office said at the time it was investigating the cyberattack, which it said had affected grocery stores across the country.

Write to Andrea Figueras at andrea.figueras@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 02, 2026 10:42 ET (15:42 GMT)