Marks and Spencer Group plc (MKS) Q2 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Hello everybody, it's Archie Norman here and I wanted to welcome you to the 2024 Marks and Spencer interim results. In a moment, Stuart is going to give you the strategic overview of the last six months. Jeremy Townsend, our finance director, is then going to talk through the detail of the financial performance and Stuart will come back and take you through the commercial performance of each businesses and say a few words about outlook. But for me, the most important thing about this period has not been the financial performance, which has been robust. If it hadn't been robust, you'd probably hear a bit more from me. But it's been the pickup in pace in terms of people, organization, and culture, which means that we have a now much more capable organization and means that we can move ahead to tackle the deep-lying problems around store rotation, technology and supply chain. And that means too that we can pick up the pace of investment which is required to create the high-performing growth business that we know M&S can become. Thank you, Archie. Well, good morning everyone and welcome to our half-year results presentation. If you're watching this on Wednesday, the 6th of November, there will be a conference call for analysts and investors at 9.30am. Jeremy and I will be available then to answer your questions. So it's been a good first half and we are making progress as we consistently execute our strategy to reshape M&S for growth. We've delivered growth in sales value and volume plus market share while improving profitability, return on capital, and we've continued to reduce our net debt. At M&S, we have a very clear vision to be the most trusted retailer with quality products at the very heart of everything we do. And this half we've served more customers as we beco...