M&S to be fully operational by August after heavy cyber attack, boss says
Marks and Spencer boss Stuart Machin has said he expects the worst of the retailer’s cyber attack to be over within the next four weeks.
M&S has been struggling with the attack since April, with some systems still offline – including click and collect services.
The retailer’s share price climbed slightly in response, up 0.62 per cent on the day.
‘’Marks and Spencer is halfway there, but there’s still a lot to get back online before the company can put the cyber attack behind it,” Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said.
M&S has estimated the fallout from the cyber attack – thought to be related to the hacking group Scattered Spider – to cost £300m, although some of this will be mitigated by insurance claims and cost efficiencies made elsewhere.
The lack of online orders has “heavily impacted” trading profit, the company said, as have costs associated with reduced food availability and waste.
Last month, the company said that some its customers’ personal data was stolen in the attack, although it said the data does not include useable payment or card details, nor does it include account passwords.
But Streeter said M&S has tried to use the situation to its advantage, taking the opportunity to “speed up part of its digital transformation plan, as well as ensuring that its IT systems are robust enough to withstand a future attack.”
M&S accelerate investment in stores
Despite the cyber hit, M&S plans to invest £300m in stores, with 16 new, 9 extended and 12 renewed stores opening this financial year.
“This year we are stepping up the pace of our programme and investing over £300m to rotate and renew stores across the country,” Machin said.
“We have a rigorous strategy to make sure we have the right stores in the right places, and this year we will deliver 37 new and renewed stores with the best of our Food, Fashion and Home and Beauty to our 32 million customers.”
Early signs suggest that M&S is likely to be able to put this difficult chapter behind it, with “pent up demand, particularly for its summer styles, with many of the popular products sold out online,” Streeter said.