Some stores across Canada owned by Empire Company Ltd., including Sobeys, Safeway and affiliated pharmacy services, continue to experience disruptions due to an information technology systems issue.
Empire, which owns Sobeys, Lawtons, IGA, Safeway, Farm Boy, Foodland and FreshCo, among other brands, announced Monday an IT problem is preventing some of its pharmacies from filling prescriptions.
The issue has also caused some services to be delayed or to function only intermittently.
A news release from the company said it is working to remedy the problem, but could not estimate when all services will be restored.
“At Sobeys, exceeding the needs of our customers is always our top priority,” said chief operating officer Pierre St-Laurent in the news release. “Our sole focus right now is on getting this problem rectified and we will provide further updates as relevant information becomes available.”
Over the weekend, some pharmacy staff told the CBC they were not able to access their computers, but that they could supply customers with a few days’ worth of medication if customers presented their empty bottles.
Maple Leaf announces ‘cybersecurity incident’
Meanwhile, Maple Leaf Foods announced in a news release late Sunday night that a ‘cybersecurity incident’ caused a system outage at the company.
Maple Leaf is working with cybersecurity and recovery experts, as well as information systems professionals and third-party specialists to investigate the outage and solve the problem, the company said.
The news release said the company expects service and operational disruptions as it works to resolve the outage.