Retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) has published its half year results for the 26 weeks ended 27th September 2025, as food sales rose by 7.8%.
It found that as food sales were up 7.8%, its adjusted operating profit reached £89.1 million.
Group adjusted profit before tax reached £184.1 million, down 55.4% from the £413.1 million achieved during the same period the year before.
Total group sales were £7,965.2 million, up 22.1% from the previous year’s £6,524.3 million. However, net debt was up by 16.7% to reach £2.53 billion. This was more than the £2.16 billion debt from the year before.
Revenue increased by 22.5% on the year to reach £7,942 million, which was up from 2024’s £6,481 million.
M&S described its Food business as “largely recovered” and showing “strong sales performance” after a cyber attack caused “substantial disruption” for the retailer in April 2025.
Stuart Machin, chief executive of M&S, said: “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.
“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.
“Thank you to our colleagues for their hard work, our suppliers for their support and our customers for their loyalty. We are grateful to everyone who shops with us, and if you haven’t yet, please do.
“In the second half, we expect profit to be at least in line with last year. This should give us a springboard into the new financial year and set M&S up for further growth. The retail sector is facing significant headwinds – in the first half, cost increases from new taxes were over £50 million – but there is much within our control and accelerating our cost reduction programme will help to mitigate this. Our plan to reshape M&S for long-term sustainable growth is unchanged, our ambitions are undimmed, and our determination to knuckle down and deliver is stronger than ever.
“To date we have achieved meaningful progress, but what’s exciting is that there is so much more to do and so much opportunity ahead of us. It’s all to play for.”
