Morrisons group director for logistics on the firm’s ransomware comeback

IN AN inspirational post on LinkedIN, Ross outlined how the grocer has achieved a speedy and decisive recovery from a potentially calamitous ransomware attack on one of its key IT partners - Blue Yonder.

Ross explains: “At Morrisons we lost warehouse management systems (WMS) over fresh, produce and bread. 21 warehouses, 7 geographical locations. Total network. Down. No contingency, system wise paralysed. 1m cases on the floor 0.5m on supplier vehicles waiting to come in….. What do you do? Game Over?”

"It’s a truly terrifying scenario, particularly as the UK retail sector was coming into Peak as the attack occurred. So, what next?

"Ross takes up the story: “We pressed continue… we cut a plan.

• Day 1 - we create a manual contingency, go back to the 90’s, creating picking sheets
• Day 2 - we get the sites back on time and re-align the ops clock, we apportion stock to stores to claw back lost capacity. Storm Bert hits just to keep us on our toes.
• Day 3 - we do a full stock take to re-set the depots but run to time.
• In parallel we set about creating a new instance of our warehouse management systems, (WMS) configure it and host it in-house from a standing start. New servers, new tin.
• Day 4 - live in our first site, all 3 chambers, on a new WMS. We build the WMS for site 2 by cloning and reconfiguring site 1.
• Day 5-10 we repeat, converting a site per night. No gap between implementations.

"Alongside this we re-count all 500 stores, all categories affected, to re-set stock record.

"We align inbound increasing demand daily and flow stock to each store / item combination needed.”

A massive effort from the entire team at Morrisons. How does Ross reflect on the effort?

"Was it perfect?” He asks. “No, but we re-set the business and replaced all systems in 10 days. Maintained business continuity throughout and stepped on availability every day from the lowest point.

“I’m not sure many case studies exist for this type of event on this scale but maybe we just created one. 

“Has any other company rolled out a WMS to 21 warehouse chambers in 7 days? We’d like to claim this record and hope nobody else has to try and beat it.

“I am incredibly proud of all the people who made this happen. They bought into the plan on day 1, they believed in it. We had a clear objective for each day of the recovery and a milestone to hit. They didn’t loose faith (in me or the plan) but each day became stronger and more creative. Teamwork and resilience off the charts. 

“Christmas, we are ready for you…"

This inspirational story is one of the reasons we created the Resilience Award as part of The Warehouse Transformation Awards. We think it is time to break the taboo of cyberattacks and switch the focus to firms successfully bouncing back, and away from the fear and negativity that can dog these incidents. 

For more information, visit https://warehousetransformationawards.com/2025/en/page/home