Marks and Spencer Group H1 24/25 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
November 6, 2024

There are 3 speakers on the call.

Operator

Hello everybody, it's Archie Norman here and I wanted to welcome you to the 2024 Marks and Spencer Interim Results. In a moment, Stuart is going to give you the strategic overview of the last 6 months. Jeremy Townsend, our Finance Director, is then going to talk through the detail of the financial performance and Stuart will come back and take you through the commercial performance of each businesses and say a few words about outlook. But for me the most important thing about this period has not been the financial performance which has been robust. If it hadn't been robust you'll probably hear a bit more from me.

Operator

But it's been the pickup in pace in terms of people, organization and culture, which means that we have a now much more capable organization and means that we can move ahead to tackle the deep lying problems around store rotation, technology and supply chain. And that means too that we can pick up the pace of investment which is required to create the high performing growth business that we know M and S can become.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Archie. Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to our half year results presentation. If you're watching this on Wednesday, 6th November, there will be a conference call for analysts and investors at 9:30 a. M. Jeremy and I will be available then to answer your questions.

Speaker 1

So it's been a good first half and we are making progress as we consistently execute our strategy to reshape M and S for growth. We've delivered growth in sales value and volume plus market share, while improving profitability, return on capital, and we've continued to reduce our net debt. At M and S, we have a very clear vision to be the most trusted retailer with quality products at the very heart of everything we do. And this half, we've served more customers as we become more relevant to more people, more of the time, as we've continued to invest in quality and value in our food business and quality, value and style across our clothing business. Profit before tax and adjusting items was €407,800,000 an increase of 17%.

Speaker 1

In Food, volume growth outperformed the market and operating margin improved to 5.1% from 4.1% as sales grew faster than costs driving strong operating leverage. In clothing and home, over 80% of our sales were full price in a highly promotional market. Operating margin reduced 40 basis points to 12% as we invested in digital and technology, particularly online. Both our businesses are now consistently delivering growth and we've got good momentum as we step into Christmas. We're generating strong paybacks on store rotation well ahead of our hurdle rates, and we continue to make progress in our plans to reduce structural costs by €500,000,000 by FY 'twenty eight.

Speaker 1

Our disciplined approach to capital allocation and focus on returns has increased our return on capital employed to 15%, demonstrating our ability to deliver value for shareholders. The easy thing for me to say is that these are good results. But in the spirit of being positively dissatisfied, we still have so much opportunity ahead of us that provides future growth and that is what should excite us. We need to accelerate the pace of change, face into the thorny issues and seize the opportunities. Online continues to grow, but we need to reimagine our website and app experience.

Speaker 1

We need to improve availability and fulfillment across clothing, home and beauty and bring the magic of M and S to customers whenever, wherever and however they want to shop with us. Over time, these improvements will drive growth towards our ambition of being 50% online. Along with that, we've also got an opportunity to rethink loyalty and drive even more personalization. Another opportunity is the modernization of our supply chain across both of our businesses to enable growth, create a faster and lower cost operation. The reset of our international business is underway as we look to bring the best of M and S to a global customer base.

Speaker 1

We remain confident international is a growth opportunity in the medium term And in digital and technology, under new leadership, we've now got a grip and we have a clear plan over the next 3 years. Although store rotation hasn't been as fast as we would like, we now have fresh momentum with the acquisition of 10 major sites giving us future stores in high quality, high growth locations. So as ever, we've achieved a lot, but there is so much more to do over the 12 months and beyond, and that provides lots of opportunity for future growth. I'll now hand you to Jeremy to walk you through the financials.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Stuart. I'll start with the group headlines, which highlight a strong performance in the first half as we continue to reshape M and S for growth. Group sales were £6,500,000,000 up 5.8% on last year, with profit before tax and adjusting items of £407,800,000 up 17.2% on last year. Free cash flow from operations was £16,300,000 for the period, which was a small reduction on last year's first half. Net debt has continued to decrease and we remain in net funds excluding the lease position.

Speaker 2

I'll now take you through the results in more detail by business area. The Food business grew sales by 8.1% in H1 with Q1 growth being impacted by there being no Easter this financial year and with Q2 growing by double digits. UK Food volumes grew by 6.5%, supported by growth in larger baskets. Food adjusted operating margin improved by 1 percentage point. Gross margin was broadly level on the year as buying program benefits were invested into quality and trusted value.

Speaker 2

Operating costs as a percentage of sales decreased across all cost areas as sales growth exceeded cost growth. Analyzing the change in operating costs in the period, growth in store staffing costs and volume related headwinds were partly offset by cost savings. Other store costs in the period were primarily driven by store openings. Distribution and warehousing volume and inflation related headwinds were partly offset by cost savings and central costs include investment in digital and technology initiatives. In Clothing and Home, sales grew by 4.7% as we focused on full price sales, bought deeper into key lines and improved customer appeal.

Speaker 2

Sales were driven by online, which were particularly strong in Q2 as we invested in tech infrastructure, digital and online to improve customer experience. Clothing and Home adjusted operating margin declined by 0.4 percentage points. Stores margin increased, but this was more than offset by lower online margin in the period. Gross margin increased by 0.4 percentage points driven by better buying offsetting currency and labor cost headwinds. Operating costs as a percentage of sales increased as sales growth was less than cost growth.

Speaker 2

Analyzing the change in operating costs in the period, growth in store staffing pay and volume costs were partly offset by cost savings. Other store costs were broadly level due to energy and property efficiencies. Distribution and warehousing volume, inflation and channel mix costs were only partly offset by cost savings. And central cost growth related to increased investment in tech infrastructure and digital improvements, planning platform and increased digital marketing costs. Moving now to International.

Speaker 2

Results in the period were disappointing as sales were down 10.3%, continuing the trend from H2 last year, driven by India and a softer franchise partner order book. Operating profit margin reduced to 4.7% due to lower sales and full price mix, which was partly offset by a reduction in costs. With reset actions underway, we are confident that our international business remains a growth opportunity in the medium term. One of our objectives is to permanently remove £500,000,000 of costs by FY 'twenty eight. During the first half, we saved around £60,000,000 predominantly in Retail and Logistics.

Speaker 2

18 months into the program, £240,000,000 of costs have been removed and we remain confident of achieving our target. This rolls up to the overall group performance, which shows a movement in year on year profit before tax, driven by Food, but partly offset by International. Sales accelerated in Ocado with M and S Products driving strong growth and improved profitability, although there remains some way to go to get back to a profit contribution. Financial Services and Other reflects the updated arrangement between M and S and HSBC UK. The decrease in net debt that I mentioned earlier helped deliver a reduction in interest costs in the half.

Speaker 2

Adjusting items in the period included the Store Estate program and the financial services transformation, partly offset by a one off legal settlement in the period. Overall, the group generated £16,300,000 of free cash flow from operations in the period. Growth in operating profit before adjusting items was offset by an increase in working capital. The working capital outflow in H1 has been higher than last year. The main driver being the reduction in payables terms in Clothing and Home from 90 days to 75 days.

Speaker 2

We expect the working capital outflow to largely reverse in H2 and expect an overall £50,000,000 working capital outflow by the end of the year. There were no loans to associates in the period, although we expect around £20,000,000 for the year and financial interest and tax has reduced. Net capital expenditure increased with the focus on investment in the group's key strategic areas of store rotation, supply chain and data, digital and technology, which are generating strong returns. For the full year, we expect net £500,000,000 spend across our key areas of investment. Return on capital employed was 15% in H1 compared to 13.2% in H1 last year.

Speaker 2

So to summarize, during the first half, there has been sustained trading momentum driven by strong sales performance across Food and Clothing and Home. The structural cost program remains on track and has delivered around 50% of our £500,000,000 target in 18 months. We remain committed to our focus on delivering sustainable and consistent free cash flow to deliver balance sheet capacity, fund investment in the reshaping M and S strategy, as well as to pay a nominal dividend. And taking all of this into account, we expect to make further progress in the second half, which Stuart will talk about later in more detail. I'll now hand you back to Stuart.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Jeremy. During the first half, food sales increased 8.1%, like for like growth of 7.5% and volume growth of 6.5%. M and S food volume growth has now outperformed the market for 4 consecutive years. Growth in the period was driven by category transformation in Confectionery, Gastropub and Indian as well as quality upgrades in areas like pizza, fresh sandwiches and desserts. Trusted value investment on key shopping list essentials through our dropped and locked pricing and of course the relaunch of fresh market specials drove sales in core lines.

Speaker 1

This helped improve customer value perception to its strongest in over 10 years. And a focus on availability drove a 1% improvement in the period, although there is so much more to do to make sure we're giving customers the best availability and therefore the best choice consistently throughout the day. We're focused on making sure key shopping list items are never out of stock. Fixing the backbone of food continues to play a critical part of delivering our growth plans with more to do. From long term agreements with strategic partners who are investing in factory capacity to completing our food forecasted ordering system, which is now live in over 90% of the range, and this will help us manage fluctuations in customer demand and creating additional capacity in our supply chain network, getting the right product to the right stores at the right time for our customers.

Speaker 1

5 new stores and 4 new renewal stores were opened in the half, with larger store formats enabling customers to shop the full M and S range. And stores that opened last financial year are on track to deliver the returns above our hurdle rates, with an anticipated payback of 3.4 years. In summary, our food business is on track. We've made good progress, but we are only as good as our customers tell us we are today, and therefore, we're always aiming higher. And now we're gearing ourselves up for hopefully a very busy Christmas quarter.

Speaker 1

Clothing, Home and Beauty sales increased 4.7% with like for like sales up 5.3% with clothing now out performing the market for 4 years. In Clothing, our focus on quality, value and style is beginning to pay off. Growth in the half was driven by a strong performance in core categories such as women's knitwear and casual tops and men's autograph. Deeper buys on new seasonal product and successful collaborations such as Sienna Miller supported a further improvement in style credentials. We continue to invest in value, including holding our prices level in schoolwear for 4 years.

Speaker 1

We also launched the parenthood, a baby club offering savings to new parents as we look to attract more family shoppers to M and S. In the period, we opened 2 new 4 line stores in Dundee and Washington Galleries and both are trading ahead of expectations. Our Battersea clothing concept store, the first of its kind for M and S, will open before Christmas, as will our 4 new renewal stores in Bristol, Cribs Causeway and Foss Park. The 4 line stores that opened last financial year are on track deliver returns above our hurdle rates with an anticipated payback of 2.1 years. Despite all of the good progress in clothing, we still have much more to do.

Speaker 1

In Home and Beauty, I see a bigger opportunity over the medium term with a stronger product range and a better online proposition. Despite online growing by 11.3%, we have only just started to upgrade the digital customer experience. We have a lot of work ahead of us to improve our proposition, availability and fulfillment. In the supply chain, we're establishing strategic supplier partnerships across all categories to reduce the cost of goods. We are also upgrading our planning systems to drive better availability and increasing our smaller sizes, especially across our key campaign lines.

Speaker 1

And we are investing in the network to support growth in online as well as our stores. So in summary, there's been much progress in clothing, but there's so much more opportunity ahead of us. We are well set up for winter with our most stylish seasonal clothing offer yet. Turning now to international, the recent improvement in performance in the U. K.

Speaker 1

Business and the strength of the M and S brand provides a significant opportunity for global growth, although the results in the period were disappointing. Sales in international were down 10% with the decline really driven by India and a softer partner order book in the franchise businesses. Operating profit margin reduced to 4.7% from 8.9%, which was due to lower sales and a lower fall price mix. Actions are being taken to reduce stock levels in India. We're strengthening the leadership team across international and we expect the business to stabilize next year.

Speaker 1

With reset actions underway, we're confident that the international business remains a growth opportunity for the medium term. Results in Ocado Retail are reported by Ocado Group, but I wanted to take the opportunity to give you a brief update. Ocado Retail improved in the period, driven by sales of M and S products and breaking news as of this week we now have 5,000 products listed on Ocado, but there is more to do to increase and improve our profitability. Revenue increased 13.8 percent and M and S's share of loss reduced to £16,000,000 from £23,400,000 M and S volumes on Ocado increased 19% in the period and represented 30% of the basket. This increases to nearly 50% in fresh categories, reflecting our growing strength in the spine of the basket.

Speaker 1

While sales growth is encouraging, costs of service, delivery and customer fulfillment continue to constrain profitability. Therefore, there is more to do before investing in additional capacity for growth. I'm speaking to you now from our store support center where I wanted to share my final thoughts on the outlook as I close. Last week's budget's long term impact on M and S, our suppliers, and our customers is for now uncertain, but for us at M and S, we have a clear plan and we are focused on what's in our control. We're committed to offering customers exceptional product at everyday trusted value.

Speaker 1

Trading in the 1st 5 weeks of this second half continues to show momentum in our Food business and in Clothing and Home, we've seen some softer performance as a result of warmer weather, but performance overall remains on track. Therefore, we are confident of making progress in the second half. We are all set for our Christmas peak trading period. We have the best Christmas food range I've seen in my time at M and S and our most stylish seasonal clothing offer yet. We know customers are looking forward to celebrating Christmas with M and S.

Speaker 1

I'd like to thank all of our colleagues for everything they've done and everything they are about to do in delivering the best Christmas ever. And of course, to all of you and all of our customers for shopping with us, thank you. We've made progress, but as always, there is lots to do. We have so much opportunity ahead of us and that's what energizes us.

Powered by Quartr
Earnings Conference Call
Marks and Spencer Group H1 24/25
00:00 / 00:00