Marks & Spencer says cyber attack disruption set to cost £300m and last to July

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Marks & Spencer has said disruption from a major cyber attack is expected to continue through to July and cost the company around £300 million.

The high street giant halted orders on its website and saw empty shelves after being targeted by hackers around the Easter weekend.

Customer personal data, which could have included names, email addresses, postal addresses and dates of birth, was also taken by hackers in the attack.

Chief executive Stuart Machin described the incident as a “bump in the road” and said he hopes the company will come out “in a better shape”.

Marks and Spencer
Availability of some food and drink products was affected by the cyber attack (Jonathan Brady/PA)

The retailer revealed on Wednesday morning that online sales and profits in its fashion, home and beauty business have been “heavily impacted”.

Disruption to online operations is set “to continue throughout June and into July as we restart, then ramp up operations”, it said.

However, it indicated that shoppers will see improvements over the coming weeks.

It added that clothing and home sales have been “resilient” in stores in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, food sales were affected by reduced availability but the business stressed this is “already improving”.

The group has also reported “additional waste and logistics costs” after switching to manual processes following the attack.

People using self-service checkouts at an M&S store in London
M&S updated the stock market on its financial performance (Yui Mok/PA)

M&S said the incident is expected drag its group operating profits down by around £300 million this year, but expects this to be reduced through cost management, insurance and other reactions.

It has been reported that the business could secure as much as £100 million from an insurance payout.

Mr Machin said: “It has been challenging, but it is a moment in time, and we are now focused on recovery, with the aim of exiting this period a much stronger business.

“There is no change to our strategy and our longer-term plans to reshape M&S for growth and, if anything, the incident allows us to accelerate the pace of change as we draw a line and move on.

“This incident is a bump in the road, and we will come out of this in better shape, and continue our plan to reshape M&S for customers, colleagues and shareholders.”

It came as the company reported a higher-than-expected adjusted pre-tax profit of £875.5 million for the year to March, up 22.2% on the previous year.