Owens Group acknowledged that a cyberattack on its business “massively disrupted operations” that, along with a major warehouse fire, led to a pre-tax loss of £3.2m last year.
The company was a target of an attack during the year ending 30 June 2024, the details of which emerged on the dark web and was designed to block access to computer systems in exchange for a ransom payment.
In its latest financial results, the Welsh family-owned firm said the cyberattack was by a malicious third party, which resulted in all IT systems being offline for a number of weeks.
“The network was rebuilt and all data reloaded with operations brought back online over the following weeks,” it said.
“This event massively disrupted operations across all areas of the group and caused significant issues for many months to come.
“The group also suffered a major fire in one of its warehouses which exacerbated the operational pressures being managed after the malicious cyber assault.”
However, the haulier fought back and it paid tribute to the resilience, hard work and commitment of its staff and the directors shared their “sincere gratitude” to employees who ensured the disruption to customers was minimised.
As a result, turnover for the period reduced by £5.2m to £105.2m.
“While the staff worked tirelessly, operations were inefficient, additional costs were incurred and seasonal workload reduced due to these operational difficulties,” it said.
“These issues combined to put pressure on margins and resulted in a decrease in both turnover and gross profit.
“When combined with the additional overheads incurred, the business reported a loss before interest costs of £1.24m. The increased interest rate environment added some £1.1m to costs.”
Owens Group said that the diversified nature of its business activities was an operational advantage and it retained a strong balance sheet.
And despite the wider depressed outlook for the UK economy, it added that the additional contract wins, a return to full operational capability and renewed focus on costs had all contributed to its improved financial position post year end.
“The business continues to rely heavily on its IT infrastructure and systems to enable it to function efficiently.
“A continuing policy of appraisal and development ensures we keep pace with this ever changing environment.
“As a means to safeguarding the integrity of our data we have invested in additional infrastructure and software and have policies in place to keep our systems safe.”
