M&S  reports £201.2m loss this year down from $67.2m profit in last year

Marks & Spencer has reported £201.2m loss in 52 weeks to 27 March down from £67.2m profit in the previous year due to pandemic lockdown.

Last year M*S shed 7, 000 jobs across stores and management, as the losses were mainly due to the performance of its clothing division which suffered as non-essential retail was closed during lockdown

The store chain took hearty from improved figures of 6.9 per dent  growth after adjusting for the closure of hospitality sector in its food division as its tie-up with online grocer Ocado took effect.

Steve Rowe, CEO said: “In a year like no other, we have delivered a resilient trading performance and in addition, by going further and faster in our transformation through the Never the Same Again programme, we move beyond fixing the basics to forge a reshaped M&S”.

M&S said it had received government support of £306.1m, which had parlty offset the effect of lost trade and enabled it to keep its employees on.