Marks & Spencer to reveal how much cyber attack cost retailer

Marks & Spencer is set to reveal its annual financial performance next Wednesday following a recent cyber attack, with one financial expert estimating the breach has cost the retailer millions of pounds in lost sales.

The incident, which occurred almost a month ago and has been linked to the hacking group Scattered Spider, has caused significant disruption to the retail giant.

For the past three weeks, M&S has been forced to halt all online orders as well as affect payments and click-and-collect services.

While the company has acknowledged that in-store availability was temporarily impacted due to changes in its IT systems, a recent update indicated a swift recovery on this front.

However, the data breach remains a serious concern. Hackers successfully accessed customer personal data, potentially including names, email addresses, postal addresses, and dates of birth.

Investors will be keen to understand the full extent of the damage and the measures M&S is taking to address the situation when the company releases its financial results on May 21st.

The retailer has not yet divulged the financial cost of the incident, but is believed to have missed out on tens of millions of pounds in sales.

Analysts have said shareholders will be eagerly awaiting the firm’s guidance on profits and revenues for the current year as a result.

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Although the annual numbers won’t show the effect, as they end before the outages of operations occurred, some guidance for the year ahead is expected, and it’s likely to be very cautious indeed.

“With online orders still suspended, the breach is expected to be costing around £4 million a day in lost sales.”

She added that fashion sales could be a particular casualty, with the disruption coming amid a spell of warm weather during a key period for spring/summer clothing lines.

Analysts at Barclays have suggested the cyber attack could result in a £200 million cost for the 2025/26 financial year but that this is likely to be offset by an insurance payout of around £100 million.

The attack knocked the business after a positive period under the leadership of Stuart Machin, with shares striking an almost nine-year-high last month before a recent drop in value.

M&S is expected to report that total group sales increased by around 5% to £13.8 billion for the year to March 31, according to sector analysts.

The company is also expected to reveal pre-tax profit of around £840 million for the year.

This compares with around £716 million a year earlier.