Worst of cyber attack impact to be over by August, says M&S boss
In April, M&S was forced to halt online orders after it was targeted by hackers.
Customer personal data – which could have included names, email addresses, postal addresses and dates of birth – was taken during the attack.
The M&S 2025 AGM has just kicked off.
Our Chairman @therealarchie, Chief Executive @MachinStuart1 and CFO Alison Dolan are joined by broadcaster and author Anita Anand @tweeter_anita who is acting as shareholder advocate in the meeting and raising shareholder questions with the… pic.twitter.com/WA8xtXRkaO
— M&S News (@MandSnews) July 1, 2025
M&S revealed that the hack was caused by 'human error' and would cost it around £300 million.
Last month, it restarted online sales through its website to allow shoppers to buy a selection of its best-selling fashion ranges and new products for home delivery to England, Scotland and Wales.
Bosses told the firm's annual general meeting in London on Tuesday that click and collect and next-day delivery operations have not yet returned, but should be back within weeks.
Mr Machin said: 'Currently, half of online is open but not areas like click and collect. Within the next four weeks we are hoping for the whole of online to be fully on.
'Then our focus will be getting the Donington site back and running.
'We're hoping that by August we will have the vast majority of this behind us and people can see the full M&S.'
Chairman Archie Norman highlighted that the company has been progressing through its recovery programme to return operations to normal.
'Every week new systems are coming back,' he said.
'Hopefully in a few weeks we'll be humming – we're hopeful we'll be back to full operations very shortly.'
Mr Norman also highlighted that executive pay deals could be impacted by any drop in financial performance caused by the cyber attack this financial year.
He added: 'The financial effect of this will be taken into account with regards to incentive pay, but it's too early to say.
'We are planning to come back stronger and want to go gangbusters for the rest of the year, but whatever the impact on shareholders, that comes through in remuneration as well.'
At the meeting, shareholders voted in favour of the group's pay deal for the year to March, which saw Mr Machin's overall pay packet jump by 39% to £7.1 million, driven by performance-linked bonuses.
Meanwhile, a majority voted against a resolution put forward by Share Action which called on M&S to disclose information on the number of employees earning below the real living wage.
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