Coca-Cola Resumes Fairlife Production After Ransomware Attack

Coca-Cola has resumed production of its Fairlife milk dairy beverages after a cyberattack forced it to halt operations at four plants across the U.S. The company said in a statement on Monday that it has made 'significant progress' in restoring service at the facilities and has 'resumed the majority of production.' On July 16, Coca-Cola announced that an unauthorized third party had gained access to some of Fairlife's tech systems in what the company characterized as a 'ransomware' attack. Coca-Cola temporarily halted Fairlife milk operations in the U.S., noting that the incident did not affect product quality or safety. It also said on Monday that hackers had obtained 'certain data' and that it continues to work to fully restore its production operations. Coca-Cola does not expect the incident to meaningfully hurt its sales. 'Retail availability of Fairlife products has been largely unimpacted, due to the availability of existing inventory. Product quality and safety have not been impacted,' the company said. Coca-Cola purchased Fairlife, one of its 200 beverage brands, from Select Milk Producers in 2020 for roughly $7 billion. Fairlife's annual sales top $3 billion, according to Coca-Cola.