Molson Coors beer production disrupted after cyberattack

The Molson Coors Beverage Company —the multinational conglomerate behind major beer and beverage brands like Coors, Miller, Molson, Bergenbier, and Redd's— said today that production at some of its facilities has stopped following a cybersecurity incident.

In SEC documents filed this morning, Molson Coors said the incident "may continue to cause a delay or disruption to parts of the Company's business, including its brewery operations, production, and shipments."

Sources who reached out to The Record earlier today said the company suffered a ransomware attack on Tuesday, following which affected IT systems were taken down.

Employees were told not to touch their computers, and several production systems were shut down to restore the computers controlling industrial systems.

Molson Coors said it already "engaged leading forensic information technology firms" to help with restoring its systems.

However, taking into account similar incidents at other companies, the ransomware attack is expected to impact the company for days to come.

The perfect example for this is a similar ransomware attack that hit Australian beverage giant Lion in June 2020, an incident that caused beer supply shortages across Australia and took weeks to repair.

It is unclear how many Molson Coors breweries were impacted by this attack and if there will be any similar long-term beer supply issues. A Molson Coors spokesperson could not be reached over the phone to provide additional context on the attack.

Other major beverage vendors hit by ransomware attacks also include Italian company Campari Group and Arizona Beverages, one of the largest sweet and iced tea beverage suppliers in the US.