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LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Britain's Marks & Spencer
on Wednesday 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.
Shares in the 135-year-old M&S, one of the best known names
in British retail, have fallen 36% over the last year and in
September the group lost its place in the prestigious FTSE 100
index.
The group forecast some improvement in trading in its second
half but cautioned that market conditions remained challenging.
Despite the profit fall Chief Executive Steve Rowe was
upbeat.
"Our transformation plan is now running at a pace and scale
not seen before at Marks & Spencer," he said. "For the first
time we are beginning to see the potential from the far reaching
changes we are making.
"In clothing and home we are making up for lost time. We are
still in the early stages, but we are clear on the issues we
need to fix."
M&S 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%,
impacted by availability and supply chain issues. Food sales
increased 0.9% on the same basis, driven by volume as prices
were cut.
The group said it had seen an improved sales performance in
October in clothing and home.
In July Rowe sacked Jill McDonald, the head of its clothing
division, days after he publicly criticised chronic
availability, and assumed direct leadership of the division
himself.
The departure of supply chain director Gordon Mowat followed
and in September M&S said finance chief Humphrey Singer was also
leaving after little more than a year in the role.
($1 = 0.7765 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)