Nisa has cancelled all fresh orders placed on 19 March and frozen deliveries placed on 20 March for arrival on Monday.

In a statement to the retailers it supplies, and seen by Better Retailing, the company said the move was necessary: “in order to protect the operation and ongoing service to partners.”

Responding to Better Retailing, Nisa said: “This is a temporary measure to avoid the risk of creating a bottleneck which would have more significant consequences. These are unprecedented times and we really value the continued support of our partners and the work they are doing for their customers and communities.”

The wholesaler and symbol group operator explained that order volumes placed in the last three days were more than double the volume Nisa receives in a standard week. Nisa said the 48 break was necessary to work through this backlog.

“This was a very hard decision but without it we risk creating a bottleneck with more significant consequences,” the company said.

Like other wholesalers, Nisa also reported heavy outages across Babycare, personal care, household and core grocery lines. Nisa also revealed that it has cancelled in-store egg find promotions running in partnership with Cadbury. “, it would not be responsible for Nisa & Cadbury to encourage customers to visit stores to look for the printed egg, with multiple customers potenitally touching the same egg,” a Nisa spokesperson said.

Despite the issues, Nisa retailers praised the staff at Nisa and its delivery partner – DHL for their work during the crisis. Mike Sohal of Dallam Stores in Warrington said: “Nisa have managed the whole situation perfectly fine so far availability wise. They deserve credit where it’s due. Both Nisa and DHL staff have gone out of their way to help to be fair.”

Elsewhere retailers reported not being able to get into cash and carry car parks in London at Dhamecha and Booker sites due to demand, while consumer use of Costco had stripped shelves of the goods retailers need. More than 20 store owners complained that the same issue was affecting Booker sites, though Better Retailing understands that the wholesaler has responded by banning non-retail and foodservice customers using its cash and carries before 11am. In a statement sent to customers it said this was to  “allow all our customers access to our branches in the most responsible way.” Booker has also reduced opening hours to help its restocking operations.

Find out more on our coronavirus information hub for retailers