M&S takes more than a year to recover from cyber-attack as profits bounce back to £355m

Marks & Spencer (M&S) has reported that its clothing and homeware sales remain below their levels from two years ago, but the company's profits have recovered to £355m in the six months to 26 September. The figures represent a significant improvement from only £3.4m a year before, as the retailer partially recovered from a devastating cyber-attack in the summer of last year.

The cyber-attack, which began over Easter 2025, forced M&S to shut its website for over six weeks, impacting sales and profitability. The attack caused disruptions in the ordering processes for manual orders, as well as higher fulfilment costs for online sales. As a result, sales and profit from the clothing and homeware arm of the business remained below their levels from two years ago.

Despite the challenges, M&S has reported that its overall sales and profit performance was better than expected, with its food business driving growth. Sales in the food segment increased by almost 14% to £5.2bn in the half year, as the company opened seven new stores and expanded or refurbished others. Additionally, M&S has reported that its Ocado joint venture swung to a half-year profit of £25.6m from a loss of £3.1m a year before.

Stuart Machin, the chief executive of M&S, stated that while the brand is in good health, the results fell short of its potential and there is still much to be done. The company has committed to cutting £120m in costs this year across technology, logistics, and stores to partly offset new costs, including £35m related to a new packaging levy.