Marks & Spencer over the past 20 years has been a tale of false dawns for its shareholders. Every apparent advance has been followed by a declaration from the boardroom that even vaster sums must be spent on overhauling warehouses, improving stores, closing stores, investing in food logistics, revamping clothing, or something else. It is, therefore, dangerous to say the long struggle against obsolescence has succeeded. But that’s the way it looks.
Wednesday’s annual pre-tax profit numbers depended on how you cut them: up a fifth in statutory form; down by 8% at £482m in “adjusted” variety; and better at an “underlying” level if one ignores the Covid freebie on business rates a year ago. In essence, though, all versions were a couple of notches above City forecasts.
