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M&S’s Annual Profit Slumps 88% During Lockdowns and the Retailer Plans to Close More Stores

by Michael Curzon
26 May 2021 10:25 AM

The economic disruption caused by numerous lockdowns has been deeply felt by Marks & Spencer (M&S), with the retailer’s full-year profit having slumped by 88%. This is largely due to a collapse in clothing sales, the recovery of which is likely to be hampered by the post-lockdown shift to “hybrid working“, where staff only visit the office some of the time. Despite this, the company says it has traded well in the early weeks of the 2021-22 year and that it believes profits will recover. Reuters has more.

M&S, which also sells upmarket food, made a pretax profit before one-off items of £50.3 million… in the year to April 3rd, down from the £403.1 million made in 2019-20.

The 137-year old group, one of the best-known names in British retail, said like-for-like clothing and homeware sales plunged 31.5%, damaged by multiple coronavirus lockdowns which shuttered stores.

Clothing and homeware sales in stores crashed 56.2%, partly offset by online growth of 53.9%.

In food, where space remained open during the crisis, like-for-like sales rose 1.3%.

On a statutory basis, M&S sank to a pretax loss of £209.4 million, versus a profit of £67.2 million in 2019-20.

All U.K. clothing retailers have been hit hard by the pandemic. Last month Primark… which does not trade online, reported a drop in annual profit of 90%. Next, … which has a huge online business, has shown greater resilience but its full-year profit still fell 53%.

Worth reading in full.

The damage to its profits has forced the retailer to commit to closing another 30 stores over the next 10 years. BBC News has the story.

M&S has already closed or relocated 59 main stores, as well as cutting 7,000 jobs across stores and management.

The chain has reported big losses for last year as the pandemic took its toll on clothing sales.

But food sales were up thanks to its Ocado tie-up, contributing to “a resilient financial performance in a year of disruption”…

The High Street stalwart currently has 254 full-line stores… It says that a number of them are in long-term decline and cannot justify future investment. 

About 30 stores will gradually close over the next decade, while another 80 will be moved to better locations or merged with nearby shops. 

The group will open 17 new or expanded main stores over the next two years, including a number of former Debenhams sites.

Also worth reading in full.

Tags: Economic costsMarks & Spencer

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28 Comments
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Jess
Jess
4 years ago

Muzzled staff asking shoppers to be muzzled and to not try any clothes in the shop might have something to do with the sales drop.

81
0
I am Spartacas
I am Spartacas
4 years ago
Reply to  Jess

Exactly right – and then you have the stores that have a large sign saying ‘NO MASK – NO ENTRY‘ – which is in itself breaking discrimination laws. I’ve not bothered to attempt to go in these places and instead have made a mental note of all the local stores where I live that have displayed this rather aggressive demand and I am never shopping there again.

57
0
Jess
Jess
4 years ago
Reply to  I am Spartacas

A Tesco Express near me has that sign – it put me off going in until I realised noone in the place ever challenges or asks. I would complain but they’d probably start enforcing it.

13
0
DomTaylor
DomTaylor
4 years ago
Reply to  I am Spartacas

Me too.

0
0
Annie
Annie
4 years ago
Reply to  I am Spartacas

I’ve walked right past them with no repercussions,
But yes, they are loathsome.

10
0
sophie123
sophie123
4 years ago
Reply to  I am Spartacas

I walked down the King’s road today and purposefully obeyed this by not entering any premises bearing such a sign. As I’m a complete shopaholic, it was their loss and my gain.

I was the only person in Peter Jones without a mask too. They have no sign (that I saw), but a Marshall, who I ignored.

15
0
Teddy Edward
Teddy Edward
4 years ago
Reply to  Jess

I ripped M&S a new asshole in Chepstow when challenged about my autonomy.

25
0
BertieFox
BertieFox
4 years ago
Reply to  Jess

And mirrors covered in black fabric – in my M & S anyway.

2
0
iane
iane
4 years ago

Share price doing pretty well though!

1
0
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  iane

or fiat currencies doing pretty badly…

The CCCP (central committee on credit pricing) formerly known as the BoE had the cheek to disparage BitCoin etc as not backed by anything…

5
0
DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago

Shops are into overkill and hysteria and unless it stops the shops will go. Not always the fault of the staff although some seem to enjoy lording it not realising it will eventually put them out of a job, so be it. Home delivery on the other hand, can’t fault that.

30
0
Cecil B
Cecil B
4 years ago

Armageddon meets Dads Army

The mad monk actually describes himself as the hero in the A film

His plan to save the worlds is frustrated by the powers to be until a woman runs into the room screaming ‘were all fucked, were all fucked’

Hilarious, if that hadn’t locked up my grandchildren on the basis of this shit

Last edited 4 years ago by Cecil B
10
0
steve_w
steve_w
4 years ago

Cummings “was locked in “meeting after meeting with people” to try and devise a strategy, adding it was “clear that overall, there was not a coherent plan”.”

but there was a plan – its just you threw it away and tried to do 10 years of decent pandemic planning on a whiteboard with a degree in Ancient History

17
0
steve_w
steve_w
4 years ago
Reply to  steve_w

The fucking moron Cummings threw away 10 years of research by scientists that gave us the plan we should have followed
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/213717/dh_131040.pdf

and decided to replace it with this. its like something out of playschool

plan B.jpg
19
0
A Heretic
A Heretic
4 years ago

must be fake news, we were just told that lockdowns have no economic impact.

7
0
MTF
MTF
4 years ago

The damage to its profits has forced the retailer to commit to closing another 30 stores over the next 10 years.

There is nothing in the report to suggest that the commitment to close another 30 stores is due to the damage to its profits during the lockdowns. It would very short sighted to base a 10 year strategy on a one-off event

1
0
DomTaylor
DomTaylor
4 years ago

Don’t have any sympathy for them: nauseating COVID virtue signalling and proudly boasting their ‘Made in China’ range long after the Uighur genocide was uncovered.

9
0
Cecil B
Cecil B
4 years ago

Private Baldrick ‘Sir why did it all go wrong, I thought they were following the science and the plan’

Captain Blackadder ‘Yes they were following the plan and the science until one evening the generals wet their pants and went bat shit crazy’

PB ‘What happened Sir?

CB ‘The generals started running around screaming ‘Were fucked’ and listening to relatives second hand reports about Lombardy’

PB ‘What happened then?’

CB ‘They ripped up the science and knocked up a new plan on the back of a huge fag packet and went with that’

PB ‘So what have we learnt Sir’

CB ‘Private Baldrick what we have learnt is that we should have shot the fucking generals right at the start’

Last edited 4 years ago by Cecil B
10
0
realarthurdent
realarthurdent
4 years ago

The decline at M&S isn’t due to COVID.
It’s due to its inability to make and sell trousers whose stitching doesn’t fall apart before they leave the store.

In pandemic terms, M&S was “dry tinder”, I’m afraid.

13
-1
A Heretic
A Heretic
4 years ago
Reply to  realarthurdent

there’s a big difference between shops slowly going away over the next however many years and being shut by government decree. £400M profit doesn’t sound like a shop about to die soon unlike Debenhams.

2
0
Annie
Annie
4 years ago

Serves the covid-obsessed, joyless, mean-spirited, bullying buggers right, dammit.

12
0
alw
alw
4 years ago

Well I went into M&S Marble Arch yesterday, unmasked. Not challenged by any staff and like all of the stores I visited, staff very friendly and pleased to a maskless face. Food department busy but rest of shop dead.

7
0
helenf
helenf
4 years ago

I am not at all surprised. It took me several weeks of trying to successfully order and receive 4 pairs of knickers and a pair of slippers online, as I kept getting to the point of having put in my address and card details only to be told the items were no longer in stock. On one occasion I thought I’d successfully bought these items only for part of my order to be later cancelled several days later by m&s because, surprise surprise, item not in stock. Sheer incompetence. They couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery.

1
0
Annie
Annie
4 years ago
Reply to  helenf

I had a similar experience. Acknowledge order, take payment, wait a week, tell you item isn’t available.

2
-1
chaos
chaos
4 years ago

Not just a lockdown loss, an M&S lockdown loss…

Who are their principle demographic? Bedwetting fairly well off middle aged-women and older women.. I don’t like to use the word Karen.. unfair to good Karens.. but Karens and Sylvias.. Deborahs and Mables.. women aged 50 to dead.. a demographic mostly inclined to believe the covid nonsense and stay inside wetting their wibbly wobbly high waist cotton M&S knickers.

Some 75% of its staf AND customers are women. Chinese Bras and knickers… and ‘posh’ ready meals.

Plus they don’t deliver groceries.

Last edited 4 years ago by chaos
4
-3
chaos
chaos
4 years ago

M&S in happier times
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beN7FftWNCM

1
0
Cerulean
Cerulean
4 years ago

I’ve not found M&S too zealous re mask enforcement but sadly once I’m in the store there’s nothing I want to buy.

0
0
marebobowl
marebobowl
4 years ago

M & S food halls, great products. Ladies clothes not so great. Has been this way for quite a long time. Go into store to buy something in ladies, can’t find size, no stock. Quality of product again, poor. Maybe they should just open more food halls.

0
0

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