Marks & Spencer’s online operation will be ‘fully on’ by the end of the month as it recovers from a crippling cyberattack, writes Emily Hawkins.
Chief executive Stuart Machin told the high street retailer’s annual general meeting that he hopes to have the majority of the impact of the hack “behind us” by August.
He is seeking to draw a line under the crisis which he has previously predicted could cost the group around £300 million.
M&S was forced to halt website orders on April 25 after falling victim to the hack – which has been linked to the notorious Scattered Spider group – but these have now restarted.
Machin said: “Currently, half of online is open but not areas such as Click & Collect. Within the next four weeks we are hoping for the whole of online to be fully on.”
The focus will then turn to restoring operations at its Castle Donington depot in the East Midlands, he said.
“We’re hoping that by August we will have the vast majority of this behind us and people can see the full M&S,” he said.
In an attempt to win back trust after the debacle, Machin revealed the group had written to 500,000 customers whose Click-&-Collect orders were cancelled this spring to “compensate them for their inconvenience”.
Chairman Archie Norman said: “Hopefully in a few weeks we’ll be humming.” Shares rose 0.5 per cent yesterday.
(Pic: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)
