CleanTec Industry News

International. The Clorox Company reported that the cyberattack revealed in August significantly reduced sales and profits in the quarter ended in September, leading to a shortage of its cleaning products in the United States.

Through a statement, the U.S. global manufacturer and marketer indicated that net sales in the fiscal first quarter will decrease by up to 28% compared to the previous year due to the cyberattack, while organic sales, which exclude currency exchanges, acquisitions and divestments, are expected to fall by as much as 26%.

"Based on its current assessment of the situation, the company expects to experience continued, but diminishing, operational impacts in the second quarter as it progresses in returning to normal operations," the company said.

Clorox also forecast a per-share loss of $0.35 to $0.75 for its fiscal first quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a profit of $0.68 in the previous year. Last Thursday, October 5, the company's shares fell by 8.1%, after touching their lowest level since May 2018.

"Clorox is in the process of assessing the impact of the cyberattack in fiscal year 2024 and beyond," the company acknowledged.

On September 29, Clorox announced that it was still working to recover from the outage. "We are ramping up production and working to replenish commercial inventories," the company said.

"We are focusing on maximizing shipments and replenishing commercial inventories," she added at the time, admitting that the attack damaged its information technology systems and caused widespread disruptions in operations.