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Retailer Marks & Spencer plans to test new store formats more tailored to their localities as it looks to counter tough trading conditions and build on a 13 per cent rise in annual profit.
Britain's biggest clothing retailer, which also sells upmarket foods and homewares, said the new formats would sell products selected against several criteria, such as age and affluence of shoppers, and have better layout and signs.
It will start testing them from October.
Britain's retailers are mostly struggling as shoppers are hit by rising prices and austerity measures. Clothing chains are also facing soaring cotton prices.
"We have had a good start to the new financial year but we expect trading conditions in the year ahead to be challenging," Marks & Spencer (M&S) said, echoing comments from rivals.
The 127-year-old group said it made profit before tax and one-off items of £714.3 million in the year ended April 2nd.
That was just ahead of analysts' average forecast of 710 million in a company poll.
Revenues rose 4.2 per cent to £9.3 billion and the dividend was increased 13.3 per cent to 17 pence a share.
M&S saw profits plunge from around 1 billion pounds at the start of the economic downturn. But it has outperformed rivals recently, helped by a drive to introduce new products like stormproof suits and French-inspired Bistro ready meals.
Investors are also warming to chief executive Marc Bolland's plan to revamp UK stores, expand online and overseas, and improve logistic and marketing, all of which have seen him make a string of high-profile management appointments.
Reuters
