Marks & Spencer has delivered an increase in sales as in-store shopping returns and the retailer benefits from its “advantaged” customer base (The Times £).
UK retailer Marks and Spencer expected a “material contraction” in customer demand next year but talked up its own resilience as its market share in clothing rose for the first time in a decade (Financial Times £).
Marks & Spencer has warned it is facing a “gathering storm” as it braces for a fall in customer demand as cost-of-living pressures worsen (Telegraph).
The clothing, food and homewares retailer said sales rose 8.8% to £5.6bn in the six months to 1 October but underlying pre-tax profits sank 23.7% to £205.5m as its Ocado online grocery joint venture fell into the red, it pulled out of Russia and held off passing on cost rises to customers (The Guardian).
Marks & Spencer saw its profits fall by 24% in the first half. (Daily Mail). The retailer reiterated that it expects its full-year profit to fall short of last year’s toal amid higher costs and pressure on household budgets.
The Telegraph follows up the latest Kantar data by arguing a sale to Amazon could be a drastic option to turn around supermarket struggler Morrisons.
John Lewis has used its Christmas advert to shine a spotlight on children in care as brands seek to be “sensitive to the pressures families face” (The Times £).
John Lewis has swept aside the fake snow, the celebrities and even the cute pets for a back to basics Christmas ad which raises awareness of young people in care (The Guardian).
Shares in JD Wetherspoon tumbled more than 9% in early trading after the pub group warned of slowing sales and said it was facing “substantially higher” costs for staff, food and repairs (The Times £).
The pub chain saw like-for-like sales slip 1.1% in the five weeks to 6 November when compared with pre-pandemic trading in 2019, having risen by 1.5% in the previous nine weeks (Daily Mail).
Pub chain JD Wetherspoon is planning to sell a further 39 pubs after getting rid of five sites over the past three months amid a slow recovery in trading since the pandemic shut down hospitality (The Guardian).
An opinion column in Financial Times (£) argues that Africa’s fragile food and water security threatens us all.
A Big Read in Financial Times (£) looks at gene-edited crops and asks “‘frankenfoods’ or a fix for climate change?”.
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