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Britain’s M&S targets rapid change after latest profit drop

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LONDON: Marks & Spencer said on Wednesday it needs to modernise urgently to survive after a second straight annual profit fall and a 321 million pound charge for a store closure programme.


Shares in the 134-year-old British retailer were up 5.4 per cent at 07:20 GMT as the underlying profit figure beat analyst forecasts and it maintained its dividend, while turnover was broadly flat at 10.7 billion pounds.


M&S, one of the best known names in British retail, faces unrelenting competition from supermarkets, fashion chains like Zara, H&M and Primark, as well as Amazon, while pressure on consumer spending is hampering efforts to revive its business.


In November, two months after retail veteran Archie Norman joined as chairman, M&S detailed a five-year programme of store closures and relocations, and moves to make its misfiring food business more competitive.


M&S shares have fallen 26 per cent over the last year and it risks being booted out of the FTSE 100 index as it is now worth less than both online grocer Ocado and online fashion website ASOS


On Tuesday M&S said it would close 100 UK stores by 2022, as it strives to make at least a third of clothing and home sales online. At the end of 2017/18 M&S had 1,035 stores in the UK, with 300 Clothing, Home and Food, 696 Food-only and 39 Outlet stores. “We have to modernise our business to ensure we are competitive and reignite our culture. Accelerated change is the only option,” M&S said in a statement.


M&S said it made a pretax profit before one-off items of 580.9 million pounds ($778.6 million) in the year to March 31, particularly hurt by a decrease in the food gross margin.


That was ahead of analysts’ average forecast of 573 million pounds but down from 613.8 million pounds made in 2016-17.


After taking account of adjusted items of 514.1 million pounds, including the charge relating to store closures, pretax profit was 66.8 million pounds, a 62 per cent fall. Steve Rowe, an M&S lifer who has been CEO for two years, said the firm was taking steps to fix the structural issues.


“The team is now tackling transforming our culture to make M&S a faster, lower cost, more commercial, more digital business,” he said, targeting sustainable, profitable growth in three to five years. — Reuters


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