M&S has seen growth across both its clothing and food departments for the fourth consecutive year, as the high street giant reports profit before tax up 17.2% to £407.8mn.
Food sales grew 8.1%, with an adjusted operating profit of £213.1mn, which M&S put down to the “strongest value perception in over a decade”.
Clothing & Home sales were up 4.7% driven by strong womenswear performance. A company profile in the RetailX UK Fashion 2024 report looks at how the M&S has reinvented and broadened its fashion offer.
While the retailer celebrated these latest half year results, its chief executive warned of the recent Budget’s potential impact on both its operations and customers.
“The easy thing to do today would simply be to say that these are good results, but that wouldn’t be the right thing to do. In the spirit of being positively dissatisfied, we have so much to do over this year and beyond. Despite our strong trading momentum, there is much more opportunity for future growth and that energises us,” noted Stuart Machin, M&S chief executive.
“With Clothing in growth and strong online performance, we are clear that now is the time to seize the opportunity in other categories including Home and Beauty. Across Clothing & Home online, we need to accelerate our transformation and reimagine our proposition.
“The business remains in robust financial health. We have improved our return on capital employed to 15% and further strengthened our balance sheet, giving us the capacity and flexibility to invest for growth and deliver structural cost reduction, demonstrating our ability to deliver value for shareholders.
“The recent Budget’s long-term impact on M&S, our suppliers, and our customers is for now uncertain. Meanwhile, we are confident and we remain on track and focused on what is in our control. We have the best Christmas food range I’ve seen in my time at M&S and the most stylish seasonal clothing offer yet, and we know customers are looking forward to celebrating Christmas with M&S.”
Stay informed
Our editor carefully curates two newsletters a week filled with up-to-date news, analysis and research, click here to subscribe to the FREE newsletter sent straight to your inbox and why not follow us on LinkedIn to receive the latest updates on our research and analysis.
