M&S to close stores nationwide to make up for 20 percent profits plunge

Marks & Spencer is expected to announce 20 percent plunge in profits as revamp falters under new chief executive Steve Rowe according to a report from ‘This is Money’ released this weekend. To make up for the poor performance, the beloved British retailer is planning the closure of about 30 of its 940 UK stores.

The consensus forecast for Marks & Spencer’s earnings update is at its best, gloomy. Analysts expect the retailer’s profits to fall by a fifth, pushing the company to implement drastic measures, specially in regards to its footprint.

In addition to closing around 30 of its national stores, the company is looking into reducing its portfolio of international outlets in countries such as France and China.

“Despite being the market leader in clothing, M&S has historically struggled to buck industry trends. Whilst it has a number of self-help opportunities, it’s difficult to see profit growth near term,” said Investec. The brokerage firm expects profits at the group to have dropped by about 20 percent to 218 million pounds.

Clothing and home sales expected to fall by 5 percent

Clothing and home sales – measured at stores open for at least a year – are also thought to have declined, by as much as 5 percent. The company is also set to say food sales on the same basis were flat, add analysts from Investec. Meanwhile, analysts at Santander predicted a four percent like-for-like drop in clothing and home.

Clothing and homeware sales account for 48 percent of the business, reports ‘City A.M.’, while food accounts for 52 percent. It’s worth recalling that M&S had revenues of 10.4 billion pounds and pre-tax profit of 684 million pounds last year.

Steve Rowe took over the reins of the business from Marc Bolland in April. Bolland had spent billions trying to turn the business around and he insisted that improvements to its store decor, supply chain and IT systems had improved its position. The scale of the challenge is already weighting on both the company’s financials and the new CEO, highlight market sources consulted by FashionUnited.

In this regard, Rowe previously said sales in clothing had been "unsatisfactory for a number of years" and pledged to focus on a number of key problems, including ditching fashion trends in favour of "accessible products [our customers] can wear with confidence".

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