25th May 2016 06:20
LONDON (Alliance News) - Marks & Spencer Group PLC on Wednesday reported a fall in pretax profit in its recently-ended financial year as new Chief Executive Steve Rowe said his focus in his new role will be to try to bring the struggling clothing and homewares division back to growth.
The food, clothing and homewares retailer said its pretax profit in the year ended April 2 fell to GBP488.8 million from GBP600.0 million the year before, despite revenue rising slightly to GBP10.56 billion from GBP10.31 billion.
Pretax profit was hit by increased charges and non-underlying costs. Underlying pretax profit, which excludes these, grew to GBP689.6 million from GBP661.2 million.
M&S said it continued to outperform in food, but that clothing and home sales fared less well.
New Chief Executive Steve Rowe said his priority now is to recover the clothing and home division while also continuing to grow the food business. In order to do this, M&S will invest to re-establish its price position by sharpening prices and enhancing service by putting more employees into its stores.
"These actions, combined with the difficult trading conditions, will have an adverse effect on profit in the short term. We are, however, confident that our commitment to delivering the right product, price and service will help return clothing & home sales to growth. This, together with continued momentum in food, will provide us with a solid base from which to build a long term sustainable business," Rowe said in a statement.
M&S will pay total dividend of 18.7 pence, which is up 3.9% on the prior year, and a special dividend of 4.6p for the first half of the new financial year.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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