The British retail group Marks & Spencer Group Plc was able to achieve strong growth in sales and earnings in the 2022/23 financial year. The fashion and household goods division, which had been in crisis for a long time, also experienced a clear upward trend.
According to the annual report published on Wednesday, the group’s turnover for the past fiscal year, which ended on April 1, was 11.9 billion British pounds (13.7 billion euros). This corresponded to growth of 9.6 percent compared to the previous year.
The Clothing & Home segment saw above-average growth, with sales increasing by 11.5 percent to 3.72 billion British pounds. In stores, sales grew by 14.9 percent and online by 4.8 percent. Grocery sales increased 8.7 percent to £7.22 billion.
Due to higher costs and investments, the operating result adjusted for special effects fell by 11.6 percent to 626.6 million pounds sterling. Because significantly higher one-off charges had been booked in the previous year, the reported net profit rose by 18.0 percent to 364.5 million pounds sterling (418.9 million euros).
Given the surprisingly good figures, the retailer’s share price jumped more than 10 percent immediately after the publication of the annual report. For the current financial year, the management forecast slight sales growth and announced that it intended to resume dividend payments in autumn, which had been suspended since the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic.