Marks & Spencer has reported a drop in profits for the second year running.
Profit before tax slumped 14% to £564.3m during the year ending 30 March, as the clothing arm of the business continued to struggle. The result follows a 16% drop in profits last year.
M&S said group sales inched up 1.3% to £10bn but UK like-for-like sales dropped 1%. Like-for-like food sales rose 1.7% while general merchandise, which comprises clothing and homeware, slumped 4.1%.
Meanwhile, international sales climbed 4.5% and multi-channel sales increased 16.6%.
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“Three of the four parts of the business made strong progress,” said M&S CEO Marc Bolland. “We are working hard to get the general merchandise performance back on track. We are very pleased with good food performance which benefitted from our continued focus on delivering innovation, and unrivalled quality and provenance. Our International operations performed well in key markets and our Multi-channel business delivered strong growth.”
M&S cut its CAPEX for the next financial year from £850m to £775m, and for the following year from £600m to £550m. The retailer said that while “significantly reduced”, the budgeting would allow it to continue to invest on a consistent basis.
It also revealed that M&S executive director for marketing Steven Sharp would be retiring from the business at the end of February 2014.
Date: May 21, 2013