Marks & Spencer, Britain's biggest clothing retailer, said it was cautious about the outlook for consumers ahead of expected tax rises as it met forecasts with a 4.6%rise in annual profit.
The 126-year-old group, which also sells food and homewares, said today that it had made a satisfactory start to the first quarter of its new financial year.
Marks & Spencer said it made profit before tax and one-off items of £632.5m sterling in the 52 weeks ended March 27. That was just ahead of analysts' average forecast of £628m, helped by a 30-basis-point increase in clothing market share to 11%.
But it falls short of the rises posted by rivals like Next and John Lewis, and underscores the challenges facing new chief executive Marc Bolland as he looks to rebuild profits towards the £1 billion achieved in 2007-2008.
Marks & Spencer (M&S) had a particularly tough recession, hit by the challenge from clothing discounters like Primark and admitting it was too slow to adapt its upmarket food business.
It has fought back, introducing lower-priced 'Wise Buys' on food and new clothing ranges like Indigo.
