More than 300 Spar stores are temporarily closed due to a cyber attack

SPAR was forced to close more than 300 stores for a second day after being wiped out by a cyber attack.

The stores were closed yesterday after they were unable to make card payments.

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But the online attack remains unresolved – with 330 Spar stores across northern England remaining closed.

The website of food distributor James Hall and Co in Preston remains down.

A Spar spokesperson said: “At James Hall, we are currently aware of an online attack on our IT systems.

“This has affected around 330 Spar stores across northern England in the last 24 hours and we are working to get this resolved as quickly as possible.

“It is currently affecting stores’ ability to process card payments, meaning some Spar stores are currently closed to shoppers or only accepting cash payments.

“We apologize for the inconvenience this is causing our customers and we are working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation.”

It’s unclear how long the downtime will last – with one store admitting it could be “10 minutes, 10 hours or 10 days”.

They added: “Due to a major and widespread IT outage across the entire Northern Spar network, all Northern Spar stores will be closed for an indefinite period of time.

“We’ll update as we know more, but in the meantime, please understand that our staff can’t open until the system is restored.”

As well as credit card machines, the problem is also affecting computer systems and offices.

Before you make a trip to your local Spar, you may want to check in advance to see if it’s still open.

Check with ‘s store locator tool to find out when your closest is.

Spar isn’t the only retailer hacked recently.

Tesco’s website and app shut down in October followed what is believed to be an alleged attack on supermarket websites.

Hundreds of shoppers are unable to order their groceries online or make changes to pre-arranged deliveries.

While in July mass outages meant banks, streaming sites and retailer websites were down. What is considered a cyber attack? – but reported not.