The UK division of German furniture components and fittings supplier Hafele has reported a decline in sales.

According to its latest filed accounts for the year ended 31 December 2023, total sales fell 11.3% to £102.9m from £116m in 2022.

Pre-tax profit resulted at £1.9m, down from £14m recorded the previous year.

Stated within its report, the company said that it had been the victim of a ransomware attack which reduced sales.

“There was a ransomware attacked on the IT systems of the Hafele Group from an external source,” the company said. “After the incident was discovered, the system landscape was shut down. Consequently, HUK had to revert to telephone only order taking and manual picking in our warehouse for several weeks. This situation led to sales losses in the high double digit percentage range in the month of February 2023.”

The group added that new systems have since been implemented and that the remainder of the year was “heavily focussed on restoring our creditability in the marketplace and winning back those customers that had to shop elsewhere in the period following the attack”.