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.
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.
