M&S records first ever loss in it's 94-year history with £87m slump
Clothing and home sales fell 21.3% in the second quarter after a first-quarter decline of 61.5%
Staff observe COVID-19 Protocols at Gist logistics depot, as British retailer Marks and Spencer rolls out its Vangarde food supply chain programme, aimed to cut down on waste, in Thatcham near Reading, Britain October 9, 2020. Picture taken October 9. REUTERS/Beresford Hodge
Britain's Marks & Spencer MKS.L on Wednesday slumped to the first loss in its 94 years as a publicly listed company after clothing sales were hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
M&S, one of the best known names in UK retail, said it made a pretax loss before one-off items of 17.4 million pounds ($22.6 million) in the 26 weeks to Sept. 26 - its first loss since listing its shares on the stock market in 1926.
The outcome was ahead of analysts' average forecast of a loss of 59 million pounds and compares to a profit of 176.5 million pounds in the same period last year.
Clothing and home sales fell 21.3% in the second quarter after a first-quarter decline of 61.5%.
