M&S boss ready to unveil recovery in clothing sales
INVESTORS in Marks and Spencer will be looking for signs the retailer has turned a corner under boss Steve Rowe.
The company, which has been struggling to revive declining clothing sales, will reveal its first quarter results tomorrow as Rowe faces shareholders at its annual meeting.
The boss launched a drastic overhaul soon after joining the firm in April 2016, slashing hundreds of jobs and announcing the closure of a string of stores. But the overhaul delivered a blow to Marks and Spencer’s bottom line when it reported its results in May. Profits plunged 64pc to £176.4m, last year, with the retailer admitting its overhaul had ‘come with a cost’. Clothing and homeware sales were down 5.9pc in its fourth quarter.
But analysts are predicting the recent heatwave and late Easter will help the firm narrow recent sales falls.
Clothing and home sales are expected to pare back to around 1.3pc in the group’s first quarter while food sales, which tumbled by 2.1pc in the previous quarter, are predicted to rebound by 0.6pc.