Marks and Spencer Group plc (MKS) Q4 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Hello everyone and welcome to the Marks and Spencer 2025 annual results. So, we ended last year in fine fettle and I felt after years of incredibly hard work, the business was starting to show its true potential. But in business life, just as you think you're onto a good streak, events have a way of putting you on your backside. And I'm sure that a lot of people today just want to talk about the cyber incident which happened after the year end. And of course that's understandable because it is interesting, important and different. After all, it's not every day you get a bunch of criminals, probably the other side of the world, trying to bring down one of Britain's most popular companies. As a result, last year's results seem like ancient history. But we should talk about them. because they demonstrate what a reshaped M&S can achieve. Exceptional performance in sales, market share, profits and cash flow. And we're only halfway through our programme of reshaping the business, so there's so much more to come. So yes, the cyber attack has given us pause for thought and yes, we will need to bring forward some of our technology programmes to make sure the business is very resilient in the future. But I'm very confident that in the great sweep of time, this will prove to have been a bump in the road. A painful bump, maybe, but a bump in the road. And I can tell you that everyone at M&S is just longing to get back to trading the business again. And we will come back. And we are coming back now, stronger and more resilient. Lastly, I don't want this moment to pass without saying just a huge thank you from me and from the whole board to all the colleagues in the stores that have been trading the business throughout, despite the normal system support, to the colleagues in the D...