By James Rodger
Marks and Spencer is set to have its online business “fully” operational in July, according to the top boss. Stuart Machin told his AGM the retailer hopes to put the “vast majority” of the cyber-attack chaos “behind us” by August. Mr Machin, the chief executive, told its annual general meeting in London: 鈥淚 have previously highlighted that it would take all of June and all of July, maybe into August [to resume all of its operations].鈥 He added: 鈥淒uring the incident we chose to shut things down because we didn鈥檛 want the risk of things going wrong.鈥 READ MORE Rachel Reeves set to cut cash ISA allowance from 拢20,000 on July 15 Mr Machin added: 鈥淲ithin the next four weeks we are hoping for the whole of online to be fully on.鈥 Then the company鈥檚 focus will be on replenishing its Castle Donington warehouse in the east Midlands, the main distribution centre for its clothing and homewares. 鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping that by August we will have the vast majority of this behind us and people can see the true M&S ,鈥 Mr Machin told shareholders. When asked about M&S losing market share to competitors, Archie Norman, the company鈥檚 chair, said this was 鈥渁t the forefront of our minds鈥, adding: 鈥淲e are going to have to win them [customers] back in the autumn.鈥 The Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter said this week: 鈥淭here will be high hopes that M&S can put this unfortunate chapter behind it, and the early signs are that there is pent-up demand, particularly for its summer styles, with many of the popular products sold out online. 鈥淚ts strong set of annual results showed the retailer was in a resilient position before the cyber-attackers infiltrated systems. “Sales growth in the fashion and home and beauty division reflected improved customer perceptions of value, quality and style. Demand for M&S food remains robust, with increased volumes driving growth.鈥