UK retail giant Marks & Spencer is still suffering from April’s cyber attack

Shares in the British icon have slumped almost 15% since it disclosed the breach.

5/15/25 7:26AM

On Tuesday, Marks & Spencer said that thousands of customers’ personal data was stolen in a cyberattack that’s blighted the company for about a month now. The supermarket giant confirmed that names, contact details, and order histories may have been taken.

Since the 141-year-old company first disclosed the hack on April 22, shares have fallen about 14%, while M&S shoppers have been unable to place online orders since the 25th and contactless payments were down in stores across the UK. Still, a few shoppers are seeing a slight upside of the ongoing issues — the retailer’s famous yellow discount stickers have been generously slapped on more products around the country recently, which some put down to knock-on impacts from the cyberattack.

This is not just food…

Marks & Spencer — or Marks & Sparks, to David Bowie and countless others — has a lot to shout about when it comes to food and drink. Whether it was being the first retailer to introduce “sell-by” dates in 1972, those iconic TV adverts in the mid-2000s, or its famous Colin the Caterpillar cake (accept no substitutes), M&S has cemented itself as a go-to for high-quality snacks, treats, and supermarket staples.

Surprisingly though, at least to some of the SnacksUK team, the company makes a much better margin on its clothing and home sales than its food.

Last year, Marks & Spencer’s clothing and home division was the most profitable part of the business, as it has been for the last three years in a row. Indeed, though food brought in £8.2 billion in 2024, the notoriously tight margins in the grocery game meant that that translated to just £395 million in operating profit. Despite the clothing and home division bringing in half of that revenue figure, it posted operating earnings of £403 million.

For a brand that predates the UK’s current ruling party and first started selling clothes in 1926, M&S is clearly managing to keep up with the latest fashion and homeware trends. Its online presence — cyberattack excluded, of course — has also been impressive, having doubled down on its social strategy after going viral on TikTok with jackets, dresses, and sweet treats.

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Ford dips as another large fire breaks out at the New York Novelis aluminum plant

Shares of US auto giant Ford are down more than 2% on Thursday morning following reports of another major fire at its primary aluminum supplier’s plant in Oswego County, New York.

Local media reported that a four-alarm fire broke out at the Novelis plant, which supplies 40% of the aluminum sheet for the US auto industry, on Thursday morning.

Last month, Ford said a September fire at the plant would hit its earnings by between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in the fourth quarter. The company said it would be able to mitigate about $1 billion of that next year.

As of 10:15 a.m. ET, local officials said the fire is under control and everyone had been safely evacuated. Novelis previously said it would be able to restart operations at the part of the plant most damaged by the September fire next month.