Marks & Spencer today unveiled another year of falling profits as it counted the cost of its transformation programme.
The struggling High Street retailer reported a 62.1% fall in pre-tax profit to £66.8 million in the year to March 31 as it was dragged down by £321.1 million in costs linked to its store closure programme.
The news comes a day after M&S said it planned to close 100 stores by 2022 as it accelerates a transformation programme , the company said.
The proposed closures will affect its clothing and home stores, which have underperformed for several years.
M&S named 14 stores earmarked for closure on Tuesday, with 21 already having shut. They included East Kilbride and Falkirk in Scotland.
Chief executive Steve Rowe said: "At our half-year results in November I outlined the need for accelerated change at M&S.
"The first phase of our transformation plan, restoring the basics, is now well under way and the actions taken have increased the velocity of change running through our business.
"These changes come with short-term costs which are reflected in today's results."
The retailer's troubled clothing arm saw like-for-like sales fall by 1.9% in the year. Comparable food sales were down 0.3%.
Revenue nudged up 0.7% to £10.7 billion.
On an adjusted basis, with costs stripped out, pre-tax profit fell 5.4% to £580.9 million.
"There are a number of structural issues to address and we are taking steps towards fixing these," Mr Rowe added.
"The new organisation will largely be in place by July and the team is now tackling transforming our culture to make M&S a faster, lower cost, more commercial, more digital business.
"This is vital as we start to leverage the strength of the M&S brand and values across a family of businesses to deliver sustainable, profitable growth in three to five years."
The transformation programme is part of a five-year turnaround plan spearheaded by chairman Archie Norman and Mr Rowe.