Service for customers should now be fully resolved following a till issue at SPAR shops across the island this week.

The computer problem which caused the issue is still under investigation.

Heron and Brearley - the company behind many hospitality businesses on the island, including the island’s SPAR stores - said all shops were expected to be back up and running by the end of the day yesterday (Thursday).

In a statement, they explained that a computer ’malware’ which appears to have been targeted at the major Preston based wholesaler, James Hall, affected over 600 SPAR stores across the UK.

This number included affected stores, forecourts and pubs in the Isle of Man.

Mannin Retail’s managing director, Vic van den Heever said: ’We first became aware of the issue on Sunday and it has affected our Spar stores’ ability to take card payments.

’All our stores remain open, however, but we’ve just had to revert to taking cash payments and a ticketing system at our petrol forecourts for now.’

The problem also affected some back-office systems for the company’s pub chain, but the impact has been relatively limited.

Their pubs all remained open and the main impact was on their emails and booking system.

It is hoped the issue has now been fully resolved.

Managing director Steven Taylor said: ’It was difficult to say whether [the issue] was across all of the stores, but as a precaution we had to treat it that way.

’We had a problem with our network effectively.

’We believe there was computer malware on the network and obviously as a precautionary measure we had to isolate it quickly to stop the spread.’