Marks & Spencer’s pretax profits fell by 64% in the year ended April 1, with poor clothing sales and costs of store openings slowing the retailer’s performance.
During the year it opened 68 food stores after announcing a strategic review last year. It also completed consultation on shop closures in 10 loss-making international markets.
The high street retailer’s pretax profit came in at £176.4m for the year, with sales of £10.6bn. Like-for-like sales in its clothing division fell by 5.9% in the fourth quarter.
The company plans to “reshape and improve our UK store estate for a multi-channel world.” This will include a refresh of around 25% of its clothing and homeware space over the next five years and further growth of its Simply Food outlets, of which it plans to open 250 new shops by the end of 2019.
Chief executive Steve Rowe said: “Last year we outlined a comprehensive plan to build strong foundations for the future. We said we would recover and improve clothing and homeware, continue with our plans for food growth, remove costs and simplify the business. We achieved a huge amount in the year and while there is still much to do, I am pleased with our progress and we remain on track.
“As we anticipated, the planned restructuring of M&S has come with a cost and this has affected profits, but the business is still strongly cash generative and we reduced our net debt.”
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