M&S reports profit falls 19% for 52 weeks ended April 2,2005

24 May '05

4 min read

Chairman's Statement:
This has been a year of great change. In May, we appointed a new executive team who were immediately involved in leading the response to a possible bid for the company - originating a strategy to deliver the value of Marks & Spencer to its shareholders. Since then the team has been implementing a comprehensive programme of change. We are making good progress on laying the foundations for our recovery. I am confident that the benefits of this will become increasingly apparent. The Board is proposing a final dividend of 7.5p, representing a 5.6% increase on last year.

Chief Executive's Statement:
The Group's financial performance for the year was disappointing. Retail sales were down 1.5% on the year and Group operating profit was down 13.8%. When I joined in May 2004, action was taken, where possible, to reduce the unacceptably high levels of commitment in the business. Despite reducing stocks and commitment by some £1.3bn over the year, we had to take a high level of markdowns which severely impacted our operating profit.

A new buying process and stock controls should enable us to deliver reduced markdowns in the coming year. Our focus now is on profitable full price sales. At the Operational Review on 12 July 2004, we announced a programme of change to return the business to growth and to its core values.

We did so with a clear understanding that, while we needed to move fast, we also needed to do the rightnced a programme of change to return the business to growth and to its core values.

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