Marks & Spencer has reported a 21% slump in profits for the past year after it was weighed down by its struggling clothing division.<\/p>\n
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The retailer said profitability improved in its food business but profits dropped by more than a third in its clothing and home arm.<\/strong><\/p>\n M&S also told investors that it took a \u00a352 million hit to profits due to coronavirus,<\/strong> while it estimated that costs and stock writedowns related to the outbreak cost it \u00a3212.8 million.<\/strong><\/p>\n The company said group sales dipped 1.9% to \u00a310.1 billion<\/strong> during the year to March.<\/p>\n Like-for-like food revenues increased by 1.9%, while its clothing business saw like-for-like revenues dive 6.2%<\/strong> as it was impacted by availability issues in the first half of the year.<\/p>\n Last month, the retail giant revealed plans for a \u201cnever the same again\u201d overhaul<\/strong> as it warned the virus would impact trading for the rest of 2020.<\/p>\n CEO Steve Rowe said: \u201cLast year\u2019s results reflect a year of substantial progress and change including the transformative investment in Ocado Retail, outperformance in Food and some green shoots in Clothing in the second half.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cHowever, they now seem like ancient history as the trauma of the Covid crisis has galvanised our colleagues to secure the future of the business.<\/p>\n \u201cWhilst some customer habits will return to normal others have changed forever, the trend towards digital has been accelerated,<\/strong> and changes to the shape of the high street brought forward.<\/p>\n \u201cMost importantly working habits have been transformed<\/strong> and we have discovered we can work in a faster, leaner, more effective way.<\/p>\n \u201cI am determined to act now to capture this and deliver a renewed, more agile business in a world that will never be the same again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":130445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16042,10585,6,10494],"tags":[5707,3211,9998],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n