M&S Ireland returns to profit despite stagnant fashion, home and beauty sales

DCM Editorial Summary: This story has been independently rewritten and summarised for DCM readers to highlight key developments relevant to the region. Original reporting by Irish Times, click this post to read the original article.

The Irish arm of retail giant, Marks and Spencer (M&S) returned to profit last year despite taking a €9 million charge relating to redundancy costs.

But the company warned that the high profile cyber attack on the retailer in April last year, which happened after the period covered by the accounts, “significantly impacted the performance of the Ireland business in the first half of the 2026 financial year”.

The parent group said in its interim results last November that it will take a £136 million (€154 million) hit to its annual profits in the current financial year from the cyber attack, which saw a four-month pause on the retailer’s online business in the Republic.

New accounts filed by Marks & Spencer (Ireland) Ltd show that the business recorded pretax profits of €18.7 million in the 12 months to March 2025, a turnaround from the previous year when it reported losses before tax of €8.8 million.

The strong recovery came despite sales that were almost static – rising by 0.16 per cent last year to €372.26 million.

Food reported a 5.8 per cent increase to €170.73 million “with sales growth coming from both our own stores and from the continued roll-out of our food offer to more Applegreen stores”, directors said

However, that growth was largely offset by identical percentage fall in store sales of fashion, home and beauty products to €147.47 million. Directors attributed the decline to “challenging” market conditions “particularly during the summer months”.

Online sales of fashion, home and beauty were up 0.5 per cent year-on-year at €54.05 million.

A dramatic fall in exceptional charges was the major factor behind the return to pretax profit. M&S allowed for charges of €9 million last year which, directors said, “relate to redundancy cost provisions relating to certain roles which have been made redundant as part of our strategic transformation to create a sustainable business for our colleagues and customers”.

That was far short of the €42.32 million in exceptional charges taken the previous year, the bulk of which was a non-cash impairment charge of €35.8 million relating to the company’s investment in Marks and Spencer Turkey Clothing Textile LLC.

Other charges in the year to March 2024 related to the closure of stores in Drogheda and Dublin’s Clarion Quay and some related redundancies, the company said.

Operating profit before exceptionals fell by 17 per cent to €29.5 million, adversely impacted by the reduction in fashion, home and beauty sales in store and increased logistics costs.

Operating expenses were €1 million down on the prior year, driven mainly by a €2.2 million reduction in staffing costs and store cost savings of €600,000.

“These savings, despite our continued investment in colleague pay and inflationary headwinds, reflect our continued focus on reducing costs and building a more simplified operating model”.

Savings were offset by increased depreciation and amortisation costs of €1.7 million, directors said, “partly reflecting our ongoing investment in our store estate”.

Numbers employed fell by 100 to 1,128 with staff costs coming in at €53.66 million, down from €55.9 million.

Pay to directors totalled €702,000, made up of €651,000 in emoluments and €51,000 in pension contributions.

The directors state that operating expenses decreased by €1 million compared to the prior year, driven mainly by a decrease in staffing costs of €2.2 million and store cost savings of €0.6 million.

They state that “these savings, despite our continued investment in colleague pay and inflationary headwinds, reflect our continued focus on reducing costs and building a more simplified operating model”.

They state that these savings were offset by increased depreciation and amortisation costs of €1.7 million, partly reflecting our ongoing investment in our store estate.

Numbers employed by the retailer declined by 100 from 1,228 to 1,128 as staff costs decreased from €55.9 million to €53.66 million.

The profit takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €11.98m. Pay to directors totalled €702,000 made up of €651,000 in emoluments and €51,000 in pension contributions.

Shareholder funds at the end of March 30th 2025 totalled €181.55m that included accumulated profits of €74.68 million.

Cash funds decreased from €13.8 million to €4.79 million.