Joanna Partridge 

Marks & Spencer scraps shareholder payout amid Covid-19 crisis

Retailer warns that disruption from coronavirus pandemic may last for the rest of this year
  
  

A Marks & Spencer store in Shrewsbury
A Marks & Spencer store in Shrewsbury where the food hall remains open as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of coronavirus. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA

Marks and Spencer has scrapped next year’s dividend as it looks to cut costs and preserve cash, warning that disruption from the coronavirus crisis may last for the rest of 2020.

M&S will save £210m by suspending the shareholder payout and said the banks that provide its £1.1bn overdraft facility had agreed to relax or remove certain financial conditions until autumn 2021. Last month, the group axed its final dividend for 2019-20, saving £130m.

The retailer’s stores with food halls have remained open during the lockdown, but it said government travel restrictions have affected trading at some of its city-centre locations and the closure of its cafes has also affected its profits.

M&S had previously warned it had not enjoyed the same boost to food sales as other grocers as shoppers stocked up for the lockdown because of its tendency to sell chilled and fresh products, which have a short shelf life.

The group said sales of clothing and homeware had been “severely constrained during lockdown” and would be lower for the rest of the year, even as restrictions are gradually lifted.

As the crisis took hold in March, M&S abandoned plans to order £100m-worth of goods for its spring and summer ranges, to avoid being left with unsold stock.

Shoppers are unlikely to flood back to high streets when government restrictions are lifted, said Sophie Lund-Yates, an equity analyst at broker Hargreaves Lansdown, and M&S’s food business would be affected, along with its clothing and homeware sales.

“M&S’ food offering is very different to the bigger supermarkets, which means it relies more heavily on travel and city centre footfall. With so few of us now nipping into the sandwich aisle in motorway service stations, or on our lunch breaks from the office, it’s not a huge surprise sales have dipped,” said Lund-Yates.

The retailer will publish its annual results on 20 May, and has already warned profits for the last financial year will fall short of the £440m that analysts had forecast before the crisis.

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The decision not to pay a dividend sets M&S apart from Britain’s biggest supermarket chain, Tesco, which came in for criticism for paying out £635m to its shareholders, at the same time as receiving a similar-sized package from the government in the form of a business rates holiday. Government support is expected to save M&S about £180m.

The retailer says its deal with online delivery firm Ocado to sell its groceries to internet shoppers is on track for September.

The coronavirus disruption has required M&S to quickly change how it does business, such as offering food boxes online for home delivery. The company said it would be making some of these changes permanent. It will give more details about its “never the same again” programme when it unveils annual results in May.

 

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