Wednesday 24 May 2017

M&S Annual Profits Fall By Almost 64%

M&S

The retailer said that a decline in clothing sales and higher costs from opening new food stores were partly to blame for the 64% fall.

Sales were flat at £10.6bn in the year to the end of March 2017.

Chief executive Steve Rowe revealed that like-for-like sales in his first full year in charge fell by 1.9% in the UK.

The slide followed a 5.9% fall in the three months to April.

The fact that Easter fell later this year hit the company hard, although Mr Rowe added that the fall was also partly due to a push for more clothes being sold at full price.

Clothing and home sales revenue still fell by 3.4%, although food performed better, falling just 2.1% in the fourth quarter.

Mr Rowe said the company remained "on track" with its turnaround plans announced last year, which include opening new food-only stores, selling clothing and homewares in fewer stores and cutting back on discounting.

"We are almost exactly where we thought we would be and we are pleased with what we delivered this year," he said.

The firm was hit by a number of sizeable one-off costs, including £156m to make changes to its pension scheme, £132m on international store closures, and another £49m on changes to its UK store estate and "onerous lease charges" related to that estate.

A further £44m was absorbed by M&S Bank being hit by charges incurred in relation to insurance mis-selling.

Excluding these one-off costs, profits were down 10% to £613.8m.


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