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Marks and Spencer chief executive Stuart Machin received total pay of more than £7mn in the last financial year, a bumper reward ahead of an expected drop in his earnings after April’s devastating cyber attack on the retailer.
Machin, who has led M&S since 2022, received a 39 per cent jump in total pay to £7.1mn in the 12 months to the end of March, according to the company’s annual report published on Monday. His package included £894,000 in base pay and pension benefits, £1.6mn in bonuses and £4.6mn in stock that had vested under a long-term performance-based share plan.
The pay details published in the report cover a period before the cyber attack — which compromised customer data, left M&S unable to accept online orders for clothing and homeware, and has prompted an 8 per cent drop in the company’s share price — was disclosed on April 22.
However, M&S said its remuneration committee had delayed the setting of targets for the 2025-26 long-term share plan until later in the year as a result of the breach.
The company was on a roll last year, when its shares rose almost 40 per cent. The group reported last month that profit before tax and adjusting items was up 22 per cent in its 2024-25 financial year to £876mn, exceeding analysts’ expectations of £838mn.
It said its latest assessment of the financial consequences of the breach of its cyber defences was for a hit of up to £300mn this financial year.
The attack “has stretched the sinews of the management team . . . The impact is significant and will endure for some weeks, or even months,” said Archie Norman, the company’s chair.
But he said the chaos of recent weeks would not disrupt Machin’s plans for the business, and that “in a year’s time the cyber incident will prove to have been a bump in the road . . . even if it does not feel like that today”.
M&S expects disruption caused by the attack to continue until July. The company has said cyber criminals accessed its systems via a third-party supplier using so-called social engineering tactics after they were unable to breach the company’s own defences.
A spokesperson said Machin’s remuneration reflected growth under his leadership over the past three years, with more than 90 per cent linked to performance of the business and its share price up until March 31.
“Under Stuart’s leadership we have had three years of growth in sales, profit, market share,” the person said.
Clive Black, an analyst at Shore Capital, said: “There is no doubt that after what we believe was an outstanding start to the year the cyber incident will materially colour [the] first half of this year.”
But he added that the cyber attack was “a one-off and we believe [it] has shown M&S leadership and culture at its best”.