Marks & Spencer has warned on its annual profits, confirming market fears of a Christmas sales flop that forced huge mark-downs in its end-of-season sale.
The firm, which last year fended off a £9 billion sterling bid approach from retail tycoon Philip Green, said today it expected profit before tax and exceptional items to be within a range of £600 million to £625 million in the year to March.
Analysts' consensus forecast had been around 675 million pounds, according to a Marks & Spencer spokeswoman.
The company's shares fell 1.9 per cent in early trade to 332 pence.
The share fall could leave M&S open to further hostile approaches, although stock market rules mean Green cannot return before February. The billionaire owner of BHS department stores could not be reached for immediate comment.
Like-for-like sales on a comparable trading week basis were down 5.6 per cent in the six weeks to January 3, with clothing off 4.9 per cent and homewares down 23.3 per cent. Food sales were relatively robust, dropping 1.7 per cent.
"Despite heightened levels of promotional activity over the Christmas period, including our two Christmas Spectaculars, significantly more stock was carried over into the end of season sale compared with last year," the firm said in a statement.
CEO Stuart Rose told a conference call his strategic course, adopted in July as a bid defence against Green, would remain unchanged.
"I'm absolutely clear that our strategy remains the same as it was on July 12th, we're heads-down and working to deliver the things we have to deliver. We start the spring with a clean slate and that was what I wanted to do," he said.