The retailer has revealed a 55.4% dip in the group’s pre-tax profits in the first half of the year (26 weeks ended 27 September 2025), to £184.1 million.
This saw the figure fall by £229 million, which the retailer said was driven by lower online sales and increased stock management costs in fashion, home & beauty, and higher markdown and waste in food.
The results follow a massive cyberattack in April, which saw some of the retailer’s shelves emptied and a complete halt to its online sales for six weeks.
M&S has said the direct costs of the attack amount to £136 million in 2025.
The HY results were partially offset by its £100 million cybersecurity insurance coverage, but its profits were also slapped with new cost increases of over £50 million for the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) packaging levy and higher national insurance contributions.
Its operating profit of £89.1 million reflects a fall to 2% from 5.1%, largely due to the higher level of markdown and waste caused by manual stock allocation, as the retailer looked to protect customer availability and suppliers.
Despite these headwinds, the business is on the road to recovery and has continued to up its investment, including into new stores and the strengthening of its technology infrastructure.
Its food business appears to have largely recovered and is showing strong sales performance – up 7.8%. Customer numbers and market share have continued to grow.
With systems now restored, markdown and waste have also reduced, and operational metrics and gross margins are closer to normal.
“The first half of this year was an extraordinary moment in time for M&S. However, the underlying strength of our business and robust financial foundations gave us the resilience to face into the challenge and deal with it. We are now getting back on track,” Stuart Machin, chief executive of M&S commented.
“Change, on the other hand, is not a moment. Change is constant and that is why we are resolute in our ambition to reshape M&S for growth. During the half we accelerated our transformation with investment in our priority areas; opening 15 new or renewed stores in H1 and planning more than 20 for H2, strengthening our technology foundations, and confirming our new automated Food distribution centre – critical to modernising our supply chain and getting ahead of growth.
“Today, we are regaining momentum. In Food we continue to outperform the market, with three years of consecutive monthly volume growth. Our obsession with quality and innovation is paying off, underpinned by a relentless focus on trusted value, with value ranges growing year-on-year.”
The M&S boss added that the business expects profit to be “at least in line with last year” in the second half of 2025, adding that whilst retail faces significant challenges, there is much within its control and accelerating its cost reduction programme will help to mitigate cost pressures.
