Ontario’s cannabis wholesaler is capping retailer orders to work through backlog related to a cyberattack
The backlog stems from an Aug. 5 attack affecting Domain Logistics, the company behind the OCS's third-party distribution centre, which has not responded to a request for comment.
Ontario’s cannabis wholesaler is temporarily capping the number of products retailers can order and expanding its delivery window as it works through a backlog caused by a cyberattack on its logistics partner.
The Ontario Cannabis Store said in an Aug. 11 letter to retailers that shops will be limited to ordering no more than 30 packs of product.
“This will create even access to products for all stores and will avoid creating a larger backlog of orders that could delay us from getting product to stores as quickly as possible,” said the letter signed by OCS CEO David Lobo and seen by The Canadian Press.
The backlog stems from an Aug. 5 attack affecting Domain Logistics, the company behind the OCS’s third-party distribution centre, which has not responded to a request for comment.
Since the OCS disclosed the attack on Aug. 8, Ontario cannabis stores have been worried the delays will cause them to lose sales — and customers — because their supplies are dwindling and the province’s roughly 1,300 shops have no choice but to purchase the product they sell from the OCS.
The OCS pushed out a small number of orders last night, but to clear the backlog, Lobo said it will make deliveries seven days a week between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
OCS spokesperson Daffyd Roderick confirmed the order cap and new delivery window on Thursday afternoon.
“A small number of orders are being shipped today, and our third-party logistics provider, Domain Logistics, is working to bring the automated facility back online,” he said in an email.
The OCS noted in the letter it might have to move to a 24-hour delivery window until it has fully returned to standard operations.
The situation has created a headache for pot shop owners trying to make do with limited supply they still have from last week.
Jaclynn Pehota, executive director of the Association of Canadian Cannabis Retailers, called the cyberattack a “catastrophe that was dropped in (retailers’) laps.”
Rather than wait days to share why deliveries were being delayed and offer a plan to resume them, she said it would have been “comforting” for retailers to be told what was going on and how they would be supported.
The incident, she added, highlights the monopoly and lack of contingency plans the OCS has in place.
“A single supplier is a very insecure supply chain,” she said.
