Marks & Spencer is celebrating its 125th birthday this year, marking "a very long life for a retailer", said Rachel Sanderson on Breakingviews. Celebrations, however, "should be muted". Nearly every figure "is pointing in the wrong direction", said Elizabeth Rigby in the FT. Pre-tax profits in the past year fell by 40% to around £600m as like-for-like sales slid by 5.9%.
Price cuts have dented margins, but not enough to "stop the rot": the group's share of the womenswear, menswear and food markets has fallen. Margins are in for another pounding next year as sterling's fall against the dollar feeds through to costs. The tough outlook has prompted M&S to cut the dividend for the first time since 2000. That may well be "common sense", as chief executive Stuart Rose said, but shareholders are entitled to feel "uncommonly annoyed", said Nils Pratley in The Guardian. M&S has spent over half a billion pounds on buying back shares over the past two years at an average share price around a third higher than it is now.
Marks & Spencer: the core problem
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