Major IT meltdown puts the skids on Brakes

Foodservice giant Brakes has apologised to customers following a massive IT breakdown last week, which meant staff in warehouses could not pick food and send out orders.

UK and Ireland ceo Stefan Barden wrote to customers on April 7 telling them the fresh and frozen food producer and distributor had not sent out many orders on Wednesday April 6; deliveries on the Thursday were also severely impacted as orders could not be taken.

In a copy of the letter seen by FoodManufacture.co.uk, Barden explained that last Wednesday afternoon/evening warehouses could not pick food, with the next day's deliveries also severely impacted as Brakers could not book food into its own warehouses or take orders.

He wrote that the firm planned to deliver outstanding orders scheduled for Friday April 8 and Saturday April 9, and thanked customers for their patience and support as Brakes strived to restore full service levels by the following Monday.

Systems meltdown

Brakes’ IT services are outsourced to ATOS Origin and hosted in its ‘tier 4’ data centres, Barden said, where other customers include several government departments and other major FTSE companies.

He added that all four of ATOS’s UK data centres failed simultaneously last Wednesday, incapacitating all customers active on the IT firm's systems.

Barden said Brakes would spend the next few weeks working with ATOS to understand exactly what went wrong, and the necessary changes it must make to ensure the future resilience of systems for both the company and its customers.

Responding to FoodManufacture.co.uk’s enquiry about the incident, Brakes said in a statement: “All customers have received their orders now and have been very understanding. Brakes really thanks their customers for bearing with them.”

Major player

Ashford-based Brakes Group produces and distributes fresh and frozen food, including fruits and vegetables, chilled and frozen meat and poultry products and bakery food.

It has distribution centres across the UK supplying restaurants, pubs, food processing companies and caterers.

With a turnover of more than £2.6bn, ‪ Brakes Group is a leading supplier to pubs, restaurants, hotels, schools, hospitals, contract caterers and other foodservice customers in the UK, Ireland, France and Sweden.

FoodManufacture.co.uk contacted ATOS for a comment but had not received one as we went to press.