Sales and profit from clothing and homeware remain below two years ago but ‘brand is in good health’
Marks & Spencer has said a devastating cyber-attack that shut down its website last year continued to hurt clothing sales over the summer, more than a year after the hack.
The retailer said profits bounced back to a better than expected £355m in the six months to 26 September from only £3.4m a year before, as it partly recovered from the hack. The attack, which began over Easter 2025, forced it to shut its website, which sells clothing and homewares, for more than six weeks.
Total sales over the half year across the food to fashion group rose 16.2% to £9.2bn.
M&S said sales and profit from its clothing and homewares arm remained below two years ago as “availability was constrained due to the longer than expected impact of manual ordering processes following the incident, while profitability was diluted by an increased mix of online sales which have higher fulfilment costs”.
The retailer has previously explained that its team of buyers had to calculate demand and make orders to suppliers without the help of their usual technology and detailed information last year.
Stuart Machin, the chief executive of M&S, said: “We are broadening our appeal and the brand is in good health, but the results fell short of their potential and show there is a lot more to do.”
He said the manual ordering meant that in some clothing categories M&S did not stock enough everyday products over the summer. Profits were also hit by more people shopping online during the “long hot summer”.
He said the impact of the cyber-attack “lasted longer than we expected” but he added: “That’s now behind us.”
The company said it had been able to take a bigger share of a declining clothing market despite the availability problems, which were now resolved, but “market conditions remain challenging”. Clothing, beauty and homewares sales rose 17.5% to almost £2bn in the half year compared with the same period last year, which was affected by the hack.
Performance is expected to improve in the second half as M&S said availability has now recovered “creating a better balance between core and seasonal stock”.
M&S’s overall sales and profit performance was better than City analysts had expected as its food business powered ahead, increasing sales by almost 14% to £5.2bn in the half year as it opened seven new stores and expanded or refurbished others. M&S said it was gaining share on frequently bought items such as meat, dairy and fresh produce after investing £50m in keeping prices down and improving quality.
The group’s Ocado joint venture also swung to a half-year profit of £25.6m from a loss of £3.1m a year before as sales rose 16% and it improved the efficiency of its deliveries
M&S said it expected to cut £120m in costs this year across technology, logistics and stores. It said this would partly offset new costs, including £35m related to a new packaging levy.
