Mudwalls Food Group has revealed how it ‘stepped up’ following the Co-op cyber attack to protect stores and their customers, resulting in one of its busiest months on record.
The fresh and fine foods supplier and wholesaler specialises in getting British local and regional goods from farm to shelf in as little as 24 hours, providing around 1,000 lines in partnership with approximately 175 small producers and growers. Much of its range is designed to ‘compliment’ rather than compete with the ranges offered by the Co-op, Booker, Bestway and others.
Following initial reports of a cyber attack earlier in the week, on the evening of Friday 2 May the extent of the impact became clear. Existing Co-op society customers warned Mudwalls they were preparing for major supply problems and asked if it could ‘step up’ and help. “It couldn’t have happened at a worst time, the first bank holiday weekend in May,” explained managing director Jonathan Lippett. He knew due to the nature of some of its small producers and growers, they typically supply over weekends.
Through a glut of phone calls over the weekend, word began spreading that Mudwall’s was ramping up its supply to help customers. The managing director explained: “The phones started ringing from a number of other customers we don’t deal with on a regular basis asking could we help them. We said yes first, put the phone down and thought ‘how are we going to do this?”
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Existing customers increased their ranges and volumes, new customers, mainly other co-op societies, placed wide ranging orders, all designed to ‘fill shelf space’. On the Tuesday following the bank holiday Monday, Mudwall’s vehicles began reaching stores already suffering from low availability.
Lippett said “Our volume tripled from the Tuesday of that week, we pulled in extra resource, all of our own staff working additional hours, we extended shift routines in our operations.Mudwalls operates its own fleet of temperature controlled vehicles specialising in direct to store deliveries. It wasn’t just a case of bulking orders and distributing pallets, therefore we had to route additional drivers, stores and vehicles within the realms of what was possible to deliver.”
With just 20 staff, ‘everybody pulled together and played their part’ he said, adding: “I couldn’t be prouder of my team.”
The pace and volumes continued for ‘three solid weeks’ until 24 May, when the co-op societies said Co-op’s distribution centre systems were back online and picking could resume, with a focus on fresh goods at first. The volumes from Mudwalls slowly returned to normality, though Lippett stated the challenge, for some, had highlighted the risks of retailers relying on one source of supply. He explained: “They’ve certainly seen the benefit of having a secondary supply source through a smaller business like ourselves, and being able to sell complementary and point of difference lines which are truly British, and in many cases truly local.”
Messages of thanks came in from many different Co-op societies. ‘Mudwalls offered us a lifeline’ said Heart of England Co-op Society chief executive Steve Browne. “Thanks to all the team at Mudwalls for the support,” said Midcounties Co-op chief operating officer Sarah Yates. “What a help you’ve been,” added Lincolnshire Co-op buying manager Liam Uzzell.
As this unexpected challenge and opportunity receded, Mudwalls turned back to a big goal for 2025, adding its fresh and ambient ranges of British produce and fine food into more convenience stores. Lippett stated Mudwalls Food Group can give local shops access to truly British fresh and ambient goods, resulting in longer shelf lives, unique products, better quality and a ‘supporting local growers and producers’ message that can give local shops more reasons for people to shop with them.
Its extensive own-label fresh produce and fine food roods ranges ‘celebrate British producers and growers’, and this includes an extensive array of point of sale material to allow stores to also promote this message. This includes shelf-edge cards and strips that share details about the grower or producer that made that particular line, recipe cards based on seasonal hits and its ability to help stores brand their own assets such as fresh produce stands.
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The managing director admitted its small size had prevented it from really expanding its ‘small independent customer base’ until now. Powered by its first independent retailer trade show appearance, a new brochure, sales team and online ordering site, Mudwalls Food Group said it is now ‘in the perfect place’ to start supplying independent convenience stores en masse. “We are absolutely in the midst of having a small business development team out there actively trying to increase our independent customer numbers,” he said.
Mudwalls has a very low minimum order quantity – £175, and offers up to five deliveries per week, including on Saturdays. It has its own delivery and logistics team for quick turnarounds. Goods ordered before 11am are produced by growers and producers, and collected by Mudwalls on day two with delieveries to stores starting at 5am on day three, when vehicles leave its Redditch depot.
Case sizes have also been overhauled to be more convenience friendly. Typical case sizes are four, six and eight. More expensive and shorter life goods usually come in smaller case sizes, helping stores minimuse waste. Its temperature-controlled vehicles also mean stores can add as little as one case of ambient to a fresh order, making it easier to keep shelves full.
Asked how the expansion with independent stores is going, Lippett responded: “We see people are generally quite cautious on the initial range but then each week they are adding to what they are ordering from us, trying different things and seeing what works or doesn’t. We are seeing these stores’ orders grow on a week-by-week basis.”
The managing director concluded: “Whether your supply chain is Co-op, Morrisons, Booker or whoever else, having that authentic complementary offer, even a few lines, can give you a way to advertise that shopping with you supports British and local producers.”
