LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Britain's Marks & Spencer
reported a 17% drop in first half profit, dragged down by
falling clothing sales, illustrating the bumpy path of its
latest attempt at a turnaround after over a decade of false
dawns.
The 135-year old M&S, one of the best known names in British
retail, said on Wednesday it made a pretax profit before one-off
items of 176.5 million pounds ($227.3 million) in the six months
to Sept. 28. That was in line with analysts' average forecast
but down from 213.0 million pounds made in the same period last
year.
First-half clothing and home like-for-like sales fell 5.5%,
though food sales did increase 0.9% on the same basis.
M&S said that while it forecast some improvement in trading
in the second half, market conditions remain challenging.
($1 = 0.7765 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)