British retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) has revealed a 55.4% drop in its underlying profit for the first half of the 2025/26 financial year, primarily due to a significant cyber-attack in April.
M&S said the incident forced it to suspend online clothing orders for seven weeks and caused major disruption to its e-commerce platform and backend systems — a blow that affected both sales and margins across the group.
The company estimates the incident will reduce group operating profit by approximately US $ 380–390 million for the full fiscal year.
In its retail division for fashion, home and beauty, the impact was pronounced: sales fell 16.4% while online sales plunged 42.9%. Store sales also declined by 3.4%. Operating profit for that division dropped to about US $ 59 million, with its margin shrinking to 2.7% from 12%.
Chief Executive Stuart Machin described the first half as “an extraordinary moment in time for M&S”, saying that the underlying strength of the business and “robust financial foundations” provided the resilience needed to deal with the challenge. He added that M&S expects second-half profit to be at least in line with last year.
The company is now focused on recovery: its e-commerce platform restoration is underway, with the re-introduction of third-party fashion brands such as Adidas, Columbia and New Balance. It has also cut standard home delivery times to five days in the UK.
M&S believes that as the residual effects of the cyber-attack diminish, the second half will provide a “springboard” into growth for the next financial year.
Despite the setback, the company emphasises confidence in its recovery trajectory — though it warns that much will depend on restoration of full operational capacity and ongoing consumer market conditions.
