- Published
Marks & Spencer has reported big losses for last year as the pandemic took its toll on clothing sales.
It made a pre-tax loss of £201.2m in the 52 weeks to 27 March, down from a £67.2m profit in the previous year.
But M&S said food sales were up, contributing to "a resilient financial performance in a year of disruption".
The High Street stalwart is in the middle of a huge transformation programme, which last year saw 7,000 job cuts across stores and management.
The M&S losses were mainly due to the performance of its clothing division, which suffered as non-essential retail was shuttered during lockdown.
"In most of this time, our operations have been severely constrained by the change in day-to-day living, the effects of social distancing and partial or full closure of large parts of our store estate," M&S said.
"This has resulted in substantial changes to the mix of products customers have bought and a wide divergence of store formats and channels."
Food boost
M&S said Clothing & Home sales had been growing since reopening.
However, the store chain took heart from improved figures in its food division as its tie-up with online grocer Ocado took effect.
It said food delivered "strong underlying like-for-like growth" of 6.9%, after adjusting for the closure of hospitality and the adverse impact on franchise sales.
"In a year like no other, we have delivered a resilient trading performance," said chief executive Steve Rowe.
"In addition, by going further and faster in our transformation through the Never the Same Again programme, we moved beyond fixing the basics to forge a reshaped M&S.
"With the right team in place to accelerate change in the trading businesses and build a trajectory for future growth, we now have a clear line of sight on the path to make M&S special again. The transformation has moved to the next phase."
M&S said it had received government support of £306.1m, which had partly offset the effect of lost trade and enabled it to keep its employees on.
Related Topics
-
- Published
- 11 March
-
- Published
- 8 March
-
- Published
- 11 January
-
- Published
- 4 November 2020
from Via PakapNews