Marks and Spencer Group plc

Welcome to the Marks and Spencer 2023 half-year results. I'm Archie Norman and I'm going to give a short introduction and then Stuart is going to take over and talk about the reshaping of M&S and Jeremy will talk you through the financial detail and we'll take it from there. This is another strong set of results driven by improvement in product and in value, driving market share growth in both our main businesses. It follows a sequence of roughly five improving sets of results. And of course, the question is, when does a sequence become a pattern or a sustainable trend? Well, not yet is my answer to that. Why? Because firstly, this set of results was a consequence of a lot of heavy lifting right across the leadership team reshaping the business. And secondly, In bad times retailers always have excuses and there are such things as excuses in good times too. So we've had some following winds. In clothing some of our competitors have dropped out of the market. In food there's been relatively less investment in growth apart from by the major discounters. There's been a reversion to stores which on balance still favours our business although our omnichannel business is growing. And actually, the customer, our customer, has been more robust than the market commentary. And we think that is probably going to continue. And finally, dare I mention it, the weather has been relatively kind to us, perhaps until this autumn. Having said all that, this is a changing business and I measure our progress as much by the pace of change as the short-term profit. Stuart and the whole executive team have put in a superb effort. Richard Price has brought the mojo back to our clothing business. Alex Freidman has led a consistently market-leading performance in food. But Stuart's watchword is positively dissatisfied, and I strongly endorse that. We've done okay, but the good news

is that there's so much more to do we've got momentum and we are in the foothills of what we can achieve Stuart over to you thank you Archie well good morning everyone from Victoria Cardinal Place this store is one of our 92 bigger better fresher renewal stores If you are watching on the 8th of November, there is a conference call today at 9.30 for analysts and investors, and we will be happy to take your questions. This afternoon, we will also be hosting a Capital Markets Day at our Waterside Store Support Centre, giving you a deeper dive into our vision, our purpose, and our strategy to reshape M&S for growth. There are two main parts to today's presentation. First, I will update you on our half-year results and our nine strategic priorities. where we've made progress, but where there are also opportunities for growth and where we have to step up. Jeremy will walk you through the group financials and I will close with the outlook. It's been a good first half to this year. Executing our strategy to reshape M&S for growth has allowed us to capitalize on resilient market conditions and deliver profitable sales growth and improved margins. Profit before tax and adjusting items was just over 360 million compared to 205 million last year. In food, adjusted operating profit margin recovered to 4.3% from 2.2% last year, driven by robust volume growth, the structural cost reduction program and benefits from the GIST acquisition. In clothing and home, adjusted operating margin increased to 12.1% from 9.8% last year, supported by an increase in full price-sales mix to 82%. but also structural cost reduction across the logistics network and better than expected currency and freight rates. Free cash flow improved year on year, net debt has reduced and we are restoring an interim dividend of one pence per share for the first time in four years. Our vision for M&S is to be the UK's most trusted retailer, doing the right thing for our customers, where M&S product is at the very heart of everything we do. To deliver our plan, last year we set out nine strategic priorities for reshaping M&S for growth. Three of those priorities focus on delivering profitable sales growth, aiming for market share growth of 1% by FY28 in both our food and our clothing and home businesses. Through delivering exceptional product and being the UK's most trusted retailer. Through customer-centric businesses focused on omnichannel growth. and also expanding global reach through capital light international partnerships. Two of our priorities underpin improving operating margins with a medium term objective of over 4% in food and over 10% in clothing and home. These are structurally reducing costs by 400 million by FY28 and creating a high performance culture across the whole of M&S. And to deliver this, we're making disciplined investment choices in three key areas. Firstly, accelerating store rotation and store renewal, modernising our supply chains and investing in data, digital and technology. Finally, we aim to drive shareholder returns through a disciplined approach to capital allocation to generate free cash flow from operations. Food sales grew 14.7%, with like-for-like sales up 11.7%, outperforming all mainline grocers and leading the total market on volume. Market share also increased 10 basis points to 3.4%. Growth was underpinned by our relentless focus on trusted value, where we lowered the price of over 200 lines and locked prices on over 150 customer favourites until calendar year 2024. But we also delivered over 500 quality upgrades in products across key customer missions, for example, sandwiches or fresh steak. giving customers exceptional quality products at a great price that taste great and have the highest welfare standards in the market. That's what sets M&S apart and that is what truly is trusted value. As a result of all of this, our lead on quality perception has widened even further and value perception in food continues to improve. Clothing and home sales grew 5.7%, with like-for-like sales up 5.5%. Increased confidence meant we backed lines with authority across the core, but also on seasonal product. Customer numbers increased and sales grew across both channels, with stores outperforming online. Our lead in value perception was retained and style perception rose further. Women's Wear achieved a number one market share position over the summer for the first time in four years. Well done, Maddy and the Women's Wear team. Overall clothing market share was 9.5%. Kidswear grew over 5%, driven by improved ranges and a clear trusted value position, especially on schoolwear, where we froze prices again for the third consecutive year. So we're pleased with the progress across women's wear, men's wear and kids wear and overall the improvement in our product across all of clothing and home. But we know there are more opportunities to drive growth in other categories. Categories like lingerie or improving the profitability across our home business. Clothing and home online sales grew 4.6% supported by strong growth in women's wear and third-party brands. New partners including Adidas, Sweaty Betty and Estee Lauder helped towards this performance. However, there are so much more opportunity to go after as participation of online was slightly down on last year. We've made progress in the half with our omnichannel offer. Active app and Sparx users have increased. Over 40% of clothing and home online sales are now bought through the M&S app. But we do remain some way off from our target of app users that we set out at the Capital Markets Day last year. We know we have more opportunity to improve the M&S app shopping experience, improve our Sparks program and deliver a more personalized shopping experience overall. Nevertheless, with robust full price sales growth and an increasing number of orders dispatched through click and collect, online adjusted operating margin improved from 6.9% to 9%. While the reset of Ocado Retail remains at its very early stages, Ocado Retail sales increased just under 7%. Active customers increased supported by the big price drop campaign and an expansion of the M&S range on Ocado.com. There is also a renewed focus on customer service. On-time and in-fall orders increased and customer retention has improved since January. During the period, a new robotics CFC opened in Luton with operations at Hatfield closing. The new Luton CFC has the potential to double the productivity of the previous site. There is definitely more opportunity to drive top line sales growth and leverage fixed costs, including closer collaboration between M&S and Ocado Retail. Of course, we're not happy that the M&S share of Ocado Retail net loss has increased to 23.5 million from 0.7 million last year. But we remain confident and positive that Ocado Retail is a further growth opportunity for M&S Food. Finally, international sales increased 3.9% at constant currency, with more modest partner demand following post-pandemic restocking last year. We opened nine new stores, net in the period. Adjusted operating profit increased 11% to 43 million, supported by structural cost reduction savings in the supply chain. The international business has so many opportunities to drive growth and is trialling new ways of working with franchise partners. For example, encouraging our partners to buy more confidently into seasonal lines and develop their omnichannel proposition whilst also working to reduce overall levels of stock holding. I'm very much looking forward to one of my international trips next week, meeting our franchise partners to discuss future growth opportunities. The purpose of the cost reduction program is to sustain operating margins over 4% in food and 10% in clothing and home through structurally reducing costs by more than 400 million by FY2028. This program is on track with over 100 million of savings delivered in the first half. This includes 30 million of retail savings, 30 million of logistics savings, 15 million from organisational simplification across digital and technology, but also central teams in our store support centre. We are on track for over 150 million of savings in the current year, as we committed to last year. During the first half of the year, the leadership team and I refreshed M&S's vision, purpose and behaviours. Our aim is a simpler, faster, technically enabled organisation. an M&S which is closer to customers and closer to colleagues, and is supported by a core set of expectations of how the business operates day to day. We've had 10,000 ideas already from our colleagues through the Straight to Stuart Suggestion Scheme, where anyone and everyone in the business can share their ideas on how to improve M&S. We've had some fantastic suggestions from across the whole of the business. But Straight to Stuart isn't just about ideas or issues straight to me. It's about a cultural change of openness across the whole organisation where everybody is accountable for improving M&S and there's an open link to all leadership. Also, everybody in the store support centre has to spend at least seven days a year in stores and come back with ideas for improving the business. Support centre colleagues have spent over 28,000 hours already working in stores, bringing them closer to our customer and colleagues. One great output of our Closer to Customer days has been the introduction of paid leave for colleagues whose baby requires neonatal care. 3,000 managers also have now taken part in our development programmes where we're raising the bar and the importance of internal talent. More than 230 colleagues have already participated in our fast track learning and future leaders programme. Our aim is to ensure we retain, develop and promote more of our internal talent. The objective of the store rotation program is to shift to a brand enhancing, productive store estate made up of around 180 four-line stores and around 400 M&S food stores in, of course, growth locations. We want every store to be a store we are proud of. Our aim is to deliver the five-year rotation program in three and actions are already underway to build our store pipeline. By the way, we're already one year in, so there's only two more years left. During the first half, store rotation included flagship relocations of full-line stores in Leeds White Rose and Liverpool, as well as the opening of a new, smaller full-line format store in Purley Way. These stores are attracting new customers and all stores are trading well ahead of our expectations. Yesterday we opened our relocated store, Birmingham Ball Ring, and I'm very much looking forward to Thurrock and Manchester Trafford Centre opening before Christmas. November is our busiest period of store openings ever in the history of M&S. Alongside this, six stores were also renewed in the half year period. A good recent example is the store in Victoria Cardinal Place, this store I'm in today, which is performing 30% above our planned sales. By the end of this financial year, over 100 stores will be in this new store format. And thank you to all of you who are locals who I know shop at Cardinal Place. In food and clothing and home, M&S has suffered historically from high cost and under-invested supply chains. In both cases, there are substantial opportunities for improvement to drive more timely flow of stock and reduce the cost of stockholding. Food made further progress on the integration of GIST as part of its multi-year program to fix the backbone. The contribution from GIST is now running at £60 million a year, made up from the elimination of the management fee, operational savings and improved productivity and service. Alex and the team are now working to define long-term network requirements to deliver the next phase of improvements. As I said in May, Richard and the team in clothing and home are starting a program of change in the end-to-end supply chain. This is focused on fewer, more strategic suppliers, better systems to increase visibility and connectivity, and the creation of an omni-channel logistics network. Initial improvements in the period include investment in online order fulfillment capability at the Stoke and Ollerton warehouses, which will reduce the cost of shipping single item orders. Data, digital and technology investment is a key enabler for our Reshape program, driving growth through creating an engaging customer experience, efficient operations and effective business infrastructure. We are currently evaluating our overall data and digital and IT spend. We want to make sure that the sequencing of the modernisation of our legacy systems generates the most effective returns for the food and the clothing and home business. Some progress has been made in the first half. In food, for example, we've launched our new forecast ordering and stock allocation system, which has been implemented now across nearly 60% of the food categories. In clothing and home, a partner for the new planning system was selected with the design stage being scoped out at present. Across the whole of M&S, we've already commenced the program to upgrade our SAP system. Our ability to invest in the reshaping program is underpinned by a disciplined capital allocation framework, which is focused on the generation of free cash flow from operations. We now have a focused capital envelope for investment, which is supported by clear hurdle rates, which Jeremy will expand on later at the Capital Markets Day. As a result of cash generation in the period, net debt reduced further. With further improvements to the balance sheet, ratios of debt to EBITDA and cash flow to net debt are expected to be sustained at levels consistent with an investment grade credit rating. And now with an improved sustainable balance sheet, we are restoring a modest dividend to our shareholders. Now I will hand over to Jeremy to walk you through the detail of the financial results.

Thanks, Stuart, and good morning. I'll start with the group headlines, which demonstrate a strong performance for the first half. Group sales were £6.2 billion, up almost 11% on last year, with profit before tax and adjusting items of £360 million, with margin improvement in both businesses. Profit before tax and adjusting items grew 75%. Our focus on strengthening the balance sheet has delivered positive free cash flow from operations, which has reduced net debt further, with credit metrics held at investment grade levels. I'll now take you through the results in a bit more detail. Starting first with a profit bridge. The group generated an increase in underlying profit with growth in food, clothing and home and international. Detailed bridges of the drivers of operating margin can be found in the results R&S. In food, further investment in trusted value, quality upgrades and innovation led to an increase in volumes and market share. food adjusted operating profit margin increased from 2.2% to 4.3%. This was driven by the lowering cost programme within cost of goods sold, the benefits of the GIST acquisition last year of over £30 million and leverage from sales growth. In clothing and home, sales grew quicker in stores than online and style and value credentials continued to improve. Clothing and home adjusted operating profit margin increased from 9.8% to 12.1%. Sourcing and currency pressures were offset by higher average selling prices, lower freight rates and tight cost control, resulting in strong sales leverage across the business. Ocado Retail had a challenging half and recorded a loss, despite an increase in revenue of 6.9%. The increased loss was driven by the continued effects of new and underutilised capacity and a one-off accrual release in the prior year. The decrease in net finance costs was driven by higher average interest rates on cash balances and reduced interest expense as a result of the buyback of medium-term bonds. Adjusting items include our store estate programme costs and costs relating to the Ocado network capacity review, offset by the release of the Ocado contingent consideration. Now, turning to cash flow. The business generated free cash flow from operations of £28 million, a substantial improvement on the prior year outflow. Working capital was lower than expected, driven by lower stock levels in clothing and home, partially offset by increased stock and payables in food as they prioritise availability. The outflow relating to interest and tax was largely related to increased tax payments, adjusting items in cash flow relate primarily to the UK store estate strategy and structural simplification. As I mentioned at the year end, we had anticipated Ocado Retail to draw down £70 million of our shareholder loan. And in the period, this was £45 million. Looking now at capital investment in more detail. Our CapEx programme is focused on our three strategic transformation areas. Store rotation, supply chain and data and digital and technology. On stores, around £70 million was spent on opening three full line stores, two simply food stores and six renewals. In the supply chain, £24 million was spent on upgrades to our vehicle fleet as well as replacement of logistics equipment. Investment in data, digital and technology included the continued rollout of the new food forecasting, ordering and stock allocation system and the early stages of investment in the new clothing and home planning system. We have also commenced the programme to upgrade our SAP enterprise resource planning system. Finally, I will update you on our capital allocation plans. As I stated at the year end, to fund the Group's strategic transformation programmes, the primary focus of our approach to capital allocation is on generating cash flow to fund investment. Capital expenditure is prioritised with hurdle rates applied to store investments, supply chain and digital investments based on their expected impact on sales or cost reduction. The focus on cash flow, investment returns from capital expenditure and an investment grade credit rating creates a virtuous cycle which is expected to deliver an improvement in free cash flow from operations and a stronger underlying balance sheet. This in turn has enabled the group to resume dividend payments as planned, starting with an interim dividend of one pence per share. Thank you. I'll now hand back over to Stuart.