M&S profits rise by 17% in half-year results

M&S has welcomed “further progress” in its half-year results as profit-before-tax rose by 17.2% to £407.8m for the half-year ended 28 September 2024.

Alongside this, the company’s revenues rose 5.7% to £6.48bn, up from £6.13bn in the same period last year, attributing its ‘Reshape M&S for Growth’ strategy to the strong performance.

The retailer’s food sales were up 8.1% while clothing and Home sales rose 4.7%.

However, the Ocado Retail joint venture shared an adjusted loss of £16.0m, down from an adjusted loss of £23.4m in the same period last year.

The company stated that its H1 growth was driven by produce, meat and dairy and a “strong programme of innovation”.

M&S said that its new UK stores and renewals were trading ahead of forecast and as a result it will increase site acquisition to accelerate store rotation.

CEO Stuart Machin said: “Executing our strategy to ‘Reshape M&S for Growth’ has again delivered an increase in customers, sales value and volume, market share, profit and returns. Both Food and Clothing have now delivered market share growth for four consecutive years.

“Central to our strategy is our vision to be the most trusted retailer, with quality products at the heart of everything we do. This is not something we take lightly, and our relentlessness in delivering customers the best quality, innovation, service and value only available at M&S underpins our trading momentum.”