// M&S clothing and home division to remain open throughout lockdown
// From Thursday, non-essential retail in England will have to close until December 2
// The retailer has called on the government to extend trading hours
Marks & Spencer has confirmed that its clothing and home division will remain open despite the second Covid-19 lockdown taking place in England on November 5.
Despite reporting a half-year loss, M&S chief executive Steve Rowe is optimistic about peak trade.
From Thursday, non-essential retail in England will have to close until at least December 2, in an effort to fight against the spread of Covid-19.
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“We are very clear that we will follow the government guidelines as laid out, but our stores will remain open,” Rowe said.
“We’re classified as a store that is key because of our food business, and the guidelines say that, while standalone clothing and home stores will be temporarily closed, anywhere where there is food may remain open, and so we’ll continue to serve our customers in the right way, in a safe environment.
“Our stores will remain fully open. The guidance is very clear that those stores that are within essential stores may remain open.”
M&S has 260 UK stores that sell both clothing and food, out of a total of around 950, of which 615 sell only food.
Rowe said he expects a successful peak trade, despite the retailer swinging to a loss before tax of £87.6 million for the 26 weeks to September 26.
“The last six months represent a period like no other for the business,” he said.
“During the first quarter, more than half of our clothing and home business was closed, and we faced extraordinary challenges.
“Despite this, we have delivered a robust performance. While we made a statutory loss during the period, we made an operating profit, which is actually the best way to measure our real performance before ‘one-off’ factors.”
M&S chief financial officer Eoin Tonge said the impact on clothing and home sales during peak will be dependent on in-store sales during the second lockdown.
“The way to think about the next four weeks is obviously our clothing and home store sales will be impacted – the rest of our business should be trading quite well,” he said.
In terms of estimating potential impacts you have to look at our store sales. It’ll obviously depend on how we trade in the store and how well online trades in that period.
“Overall, we’re in a much better position going into this lockdown in a significant number of ways.”
The retailer has also joined the likes of Primark after calling on the government to extend trading hours.
Primark announced on Tuesday that it plans to ask the government to extend trading hours following England’s four-week lockdown.
Rowe said M&S has already decided to extend operating hours, particularly in the food division.
“In addition to that, we are lobbying quite hard with the rest of the industry for the extension of the regulation of Sunday hours, particularly as we get closer to Christmas,” he said.
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