Enterprise reporter, BBC Information
BBCSome Marks & Spencer shops have been left with empty meals cabinets because the retailer continues to wrestle with a cyber assault affecting its operations.
On-line orders have been paused on the corporate’s web site and app since Friday, following issues with contactless pay and Click on & gather over the Easter weekend.
It’s not clear how widespread the empty cabinets are however the retailer confirmed “pockets of restricted availability in some shops”.
The BBC understands meals availability needs to be again to regular by the top of the week.
The disruption in provide has come about as a result of the agency has needed to take a few of its food-related techniques offline. It’s utilizing totally different processes to enhance availability, so it will probably function as usually as quickly as attainable.
In M&S’s Marble Arch retailer in central London, indicators on among the meals cabinets that had been lacking objects stated: “Please bear with us whereas we repair some technical points affecting product availability.”
Dot, 52, who retailers at M&S recurrently, stated among the cabinets had been fairly empty.
“I used to be on the lookout for my favorite biscuits and could not discover them,” she stated.
Ken, 76, additionally stated the restricted inventory was “positively noticeable”, though the workers had been “completely charming” contemplating the cyber assault.
The agency can also be managing disruption to a small proportion of merchandise that it provides to Ocado, which delivers M&S on-line orders and which is part-owned by M&S.
Though points with contactless pay, Click on & Gather and present playing cards have since been resolved, prospects can nonetheless not place on-line orders.
A couple of third of M&S’s clothes and family items gross sales within the UK are by way of its on-line platforms and had been price some £1.2bn, based on its newest monetary outcomes.
Though its share worth was up barely on Tuesday morning, it has fallen 4.6% over the past 5 days – with a notable dip on Friday when the agency introduced it was stopping online orders.
The issues come throughout a busy retailing interval, as prospects put together for the great climate and buy out of doors backyard tools, barbecue objects and celebration meals.
The aftershocks of the cyber assault will dent its earnings, analysts have told the BBC, as many shoppers go elsewhere to buy as a substitute.
Stopping on-line orders was “nearly like slicing off one in every of your limbs”, stated Nayna McIntosh, former government committee member of M&S and the founding father of Hope Trend.
“It should have been a really troublesome determination to have made on Friday and because it enters into its second week for them nonetheless to be there shall be extremely painful,” she instructed the BBC.
However she added that M&S was a well-liked model so prospects had been possible to offer it some leeway so long as they’ve transparency.
M&S has not disclosed the character of the cyber assault.
“As a part of our proactive administration of the incident, we took a choice to take a few of our techniques quickly offline,” a spokesperson stated.
“Because of this, we at the moment have pockets of restricted availability in some shops. We’re working onerous to get availability again to regular throughout the property.”
M&S just isn’t the one agency to endure disruption to its on-line techniques in latest instances. Grocery store Morrisons faced problems with its Christmas order in 2024, whereas banks Barclays and Lloyds had been hit by outages earlier in 2025.
Extra reporting by Shakira Abdi
