Marks & Spencer has reported a sharp recovery in half-year profit, with pretax profit rising to £355.1 million from just £3.4 million in the same period last year, when a cyber attack forced the retailer to halt online sales for around six weeks.

The London-based retailer announced the results on Wednesday, 4 November, for the 26 weeks ended 26 September 2026. Revenue increased 15% to £9.17 billion, up from £7.94 billion a year earlier, while adjusted pretax profit more than doubled to £403.2 million from £184.1 million, ahead of the £399 million consensus figure cited by RBC Capital Markets.

Food led the recovery. Food sales grew 14% year on year to £5.16 billion, with like-for-like sales up 11.7% and volumes up 11.9%, showing that the growth was driven by more shopping rather than higher prices alone. Adjusted operating profit in the food division rose to £288.6 million from £89.1 million, and the food margin improved to 5.6% from 2.0%.

Chief executive Stuart Machin said the food business was attracting more family shoppers and delivering double-digit volume growth in a broadly flat grocery market. He described M&S as the UK's fastest growing grocer, and said about 1.5 million more customers are now shopping with the group. The retailer invested more than £50 million on an annualised basis in food value during the period, cutting prices on everyday family products while expanding its Remarksable Value range.

Fashion, Home & Beauty also recovered, but less strongly. Sales in the division increased 18% to £2.00 billion, and adjusted operating profit rose to £150.5 million from £46.1 million, with the margin up to 7.5% from 2.7%. Even so, the result fell short of the £191 million consensus, and M&S said sales and profit in the division remained below 2024/25 levels. The company blamed availability disruption linked to the long tail of the cyber incident and lower store sales during a prolonged summer heatwave.

Machin was frank about the clothing business, saying there is a lot more to do. He said availability and stock flow are now improving, but the results fell short of their potential, and the company is resetting the business from sourcing and supply chain through to merchandise planning, stores and online.

Elsewhere, the Ocado joint venture returned a profit of £25.6 million, compared with a £3.1 million loss a year earlier, and international adjusted operating profit rose to £15.3 million from £13.3 million. M&S also declared an interim dividend of 1.4 pence per share, up 17% from 1.2p a year earlier.

Investment is set to increase in the second half, focused on supply chain modernisation, digital capability and a more productive store estate. M&S completed 18 new, extended or renewed stores in the first half, relaunched its Sparks loyalty card and opened a new distribution centre at Avonmouth, which is expected to support volumes through the Christmas peak. Capital expenditure, net of disposals, is expected to be around £750 million for the current year, in line with previous guidance.

Looking ahead, M&S expects full-year adjusted pretax profit for 2027 to be in line with market expectations, with food margins ahead of the 2024/25 level. Machin also warned of an onslaught of cost headwinds, including packaging taxes, higher pay and National Insurance costs and disruption linked to the Middle East. He said the company enters the second half in a strong position, with a solid performance in October behind it.

The results underline how far the recovery has come since the cyber attack, while also showing that the turnaround in clothing still has further to go.