M&S: crunch time for Bolland

All eyes are on Marks and Spencer's chief executive Marc Bolland and his plans to turn around the high-street retailer.

Marks & Spencer announced pre-tax profits of £564.3m in the year to April 2013, a 14% drop from the previous year and the lowest total since 2005. Food sales expanded, but like-for-like general merchandise mostly clothing sales fell by an annual 4.1%. Underlying clothing and homeware sales have now slid for seven successive quarters.

However, the shares rose as M&S signalled a fall in capital expenditure from next year as the bulk of its modernisation programme has now been implemented. That implies more money for shareholders.

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