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UK retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) says that the worst of the cyber attack aftermath will have passed by August and that it hopes it will return to full operation.
The British retailer suffered a devastating cyber attack in April, leading to operations shutting down and low in-store stock levels for almost seven weeks. While the fallout from the cyber attack has improved, click and collect services remain impacted, and online sales are still somewhat limited.
M&S CEO Stuart Machin previously said its systems would begin being restored throughout June and July, and he has stuck true to his word, with online orders continuing and in-store stock improving.
Now, Machin has set a soft deadline for the full restoration of services.
“I have previously highlighted that it would take all of June and all of July, maybe into August [to return operations to normal levels],” Machin told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting in London.
“Within the next four weeks, we are hoping for the whole of online to be fully on.”
“Then the company’s focus will be on replenishing its Castle Donington warehouse in the East Midlands, the main distribution centre for its clothing and homeware.
“We’re hoping that by August, we will have the vast majority of this behind us and people can see the true M&S.”
However, while things finally seem to be going well for M&S, shareholders have questioned whether or not the incident could have been prevented.
“During the incident, we chose to shut things down because we didn’t want the risk of things going wrong,” said Machin.
The CEO has also said the company quadrupled its cyber security investment last year.
Shareholders also brought up the massive financial losses the retailer faces as a result of the cyber attack and questioned Machin’s bonus.
Reports have suggested the company is facing a revenue loss of £300 million (just over AU$625 million). Previous reports suggested that the company is losing £43 million every week.
It was also highlighted that M&S lost market share to competitors like H&M, Zara, and Next.
Company chair Archie Norman said the company was going to have to win customers back, and that the customer loss is “at the forefront of [the company’s] minds”.
He added that the Sparks loyalty card would be used to try to attract customers back in a number of ways, one of which was offering birthday bonuses to those who had missed theirs during the cyber attack.
Regarding his bonus, Machin received £7.1 million for the last financial year, before the cyber attack had occurred. The year prior was £5.1 million.
Responding to questions about the bonus being reduced, Norman said that company pay is “performance-related, so, of course, the financial effect of the incident will be reflected in the bonus”.
Machin also remained active during the cyber attack period, attending stores every weekend and writing to customers who had reached out. However, he said that customer service needed to be improved.
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