Press Release

MARKS AND SPENCER GROUP PLC HALF YEAR RESULTS FOR 26 WEEKS ENDED 1 OCTOBER 2016 AND STRATEGIC UPDATE

08 November 2016


26 weeks to  1 Oct 16 26 weeks to 26 Sep 15 Change on LY % 
Group revenue £4,993.5m£4,951.3m0.9
Underlying profit before tax 1 £231.3m£284.0m-18.6
Non-underlying items2 £(206.2)m£(68.0)m-203.2
Statutory profit before tax  £25.1m£216.0m-88.4
Underlying basic earnings per share 1 11.5p14.1p -18.4
Basic earnings per share 1.0p10.5p -90.5
Free cash flow pre shareholder returns £173.9m£256.5m-32.2
Net debt £2.24bn£2.20bn2.0
Dividend per share  6.8p6.8p -
1 Underlying results are consistent with how business performance is measured internally. 2 Refer to note 3 for further details.

Summary 

  • Good progress against strategic priorities set out in May.
  • As expected, underlying profits down in the half due to lower Clothing & Home sales. Non-underlying items include significant charge relating to pension changes.
  • Proposal to focus International business on a franchise model, exiting our loss-making owned business across ten markets, at a non-underlying cost of £150m-£200m over the coming 12 month period, thereby eliminating annual losses of £45m.
  • Five-year plan to improve productivity of UK Store Estate by repositioning c.25% of Clothing & Home space with costs of c. £50m per annum for the first three years and continued rollout of our Simply Food stores. Total number of M&S stores will increase.
  • Interim dividend maintained.
  • Decision not to make an additional return of cash to shareholders in the second half given costs of strategic change and uncertain market conditions.

CEO Statement: 

Steve Rowe, M&S CEO, said: “In May, we laid out a number of questions which we would answer as part of our strategic review.  We committed to creating a simpler business with customers at its heart, and taking action to start to recover our Clothing & Home business and continue to grow in Food.

“Our aim is to build a sustainable business which will delight our customers, provide a robust foundation for future growth and deliver value for our shareholders in the long term. We have made good progress on our plans and customers are already noticing a difference, particularly in Clothing & Home.

“In addition, we have made major steps towards fairer pay and pension arrangements, streamlined our senior management team and our plans to implement a simpler Head Office structure are well underway.

“We have now completed a forensic review of our estate both in the UK and in our International markets.  Over the next five years we will transform our UK estate with c.60 fewer Clothing & Home stores, whilst continuing to increase the number of our Simply Food stores. In the future, we will have more inspiring stores in places where customers want to shop that complement our growing digital offer.  

“Internationally, we propose to cease trading in ten loss making owned markets, but intend to continue to develop our presence through our strong franchise partners.

“These are tough decisions, but vital to building a future M&S that is simpler, more relevant, multi-channel and focused on delivering sustainable returns.”