Hi, everybody, and welcome to the M and S Annual Results for 2021. Before I come on to the presentation, I just wanted to say a massive thank you to all our colleagues who worked so incredibly hard in a very, very challenging year. They were getting up every single morning to commute to work, to keep the business going. And with that, dealing with, we should remember, store closures, space closures, Redundancy is dealing with a bow wave of surplus stock. And honestly, it's just been a humbling experience to be part of.
So I just want to say a massive thank you to all of the people who worked so hard to get M and S to the place it is now. With that, Running through the seam of the presentation that you're going to see today is our never the same again strategy. So what do we mean by that? Look, it boils down to the fact that we decided at the outset of the pandemic The risk of change was far less than the risk of no change. So the time has come when If the decisions we were hovering over or thinking about or nettles that need to be grasped that have got put off or something we are thinking of doing in 2 years' time, which you said now is the time, now is the moment, and we have to move faster and make it happen.
So MS2, the management rationalization, the brands project launch, the Ocado switchover, The Sparks project and relaunching Sparks and making it the amazing outcome it is today. That all adds up to the fact that we are emerging as a reshape business from the pandemic. You know, Somewhere in the media, somebody said, I think in a slightly cynical way, that Marks and Spencer is a never ending transformation. And I think a bit of that's true. Businesses today constantly have to go through a process of self disruption.
It doesn't end. And M and S, that's even more so. And yes, we did need to change. And yes, it has been said before. But the acid test, is it really happening this time?
And I think that you will see from this presentation that we are now in a new phase, that the business is emerging from the chrysalis of COVID as a ReShape business. And I think for the first time for 3.5 years, we can say there is a lot to feel confident about. And there's enough green shoots and points of light in this presentation to believe that M and S is on the verge of becoming a growing business again. Now Steve's going to introduce the presentation. Owen's going to go through the gory financial detail.
And Some of it is quite gory, but we're coming out in a good place. And then Steve's going to talk about the future and the strategy. Thank you.
Good morning, and welcome to the M and S full year results presentation. Firstly, I hope you and your families are well. If you're watching the presentation on Wednesday, 26th May, there'll be a conference call for analysts and investors at 9:30 am, And details of this are on the results release. This presentation is split into 2 parts. First, Owen Tonjes, our CFO, will take you through the results for the year.
I will then talk about how we've used this period of disruption as a catalyst to accelerate the transformation to ensure a reshaped M and S Emerges from the crisis. In a year of disruption, our performance was resilient. Despite the heavy impact from COVID restrictions, We delivered an adjusted profit before tax of over £40,000,000 In addition, a strong focus on cash preservation Resulted in healthy reduction in net debt. Underlying growth in Food was strong and Ocado Retail made a substantial contribution. Clothing and Home and International were impacted by store closures, the collapsing footfall and shifts in product mix.
However, we managed stock effectively, An online growth of over 50% resulted in strong profitability in that channel. Importantly, from the outset of the crisis, We recognize the pandemic would increase the market trends that we're already facing into. And as a result, we went faster and further in our transformation Through the Never the Same Again program to forge a reshaped M and S. Our food business is strong. It's positioned to deliver underlying growth And progressively recover in hospitality and convenience.
In Clothing and Home, a reshaped product engine An improved online capability is gaining traction with customers. And as we will have seen in our results this morning, There are some encouraging early signs with group sales in growth compared to the same period 2 years ago. 3 years ago, I spoke to you about where the business was. I was clear that M and S needed to face facts about the deep seated issues it Failed to address over many years, a complex corporate culture and structure behind the curve in digital, lacking style and value in clothing and home, Underperforming in food with a high cost to serve and a store estate not fit for the future, I set out a 3 phase strategy It began with fixing the basics. And while there'll always be a list of things to sort out in any trading business, through our Never the Same Again program, We've gone further and faster in our transformation.
You can see this where I am today at our London Stratford store. I spoke to shareholders from here last year At the AGM, and since then, it's changed significantly. It's buzzing again with more shoppers, of course. Our food hall has been renewed, showcasing more of our range in an inspiring way. Our new clothing and home ranges are looking more contemporary and stylish with a much stronger value message.
And one of our focus on complementary brands is definitely online first. We're trialing some of them here, and as you can see, they look great. Before Owen talks about last year's result, this short clip highlights some of the ways we fundamentally changed the business over the past 3 years. We're moving to our next phase of our transformation, and now is the right time to get us set up for the future growth and reinvest in the brand. So I'm pleased today to be joined by Eoin, We've taken on strategy and transformation planning as part of this remit as Chief Financial Officer.
Also joining are Katie Bickerstaff Stuart Macheen, our new Joint Chief Operating Officers, and with their support, are we better able to concentrate on building the M and S of the future and our path to growth? In addition, Mel Smith, who is the CEO of Ocado Retail and former Strategy Director of M and S, will be joining us.
Thanks, Steve, and good morning to everyone. It goes without saying that this has been an unprecedented year, with these results spanning the beginning of the 1st national lockdown in the U. K. Through towards the end of the 3rd national lockdown, and the associated impacts are evident in our results. Group sales were down nearly 12%.
Yet in the face of material headwinds, the group delivered an adjusted profit before tax of CHF41,600,000 and this is compared to the loss we predicted when we set out our original scenario a year ago. There is a lot to unpick in the performance. And as you will see in the results release, were a number of significant movements relating to COVID within the adjusted results, including government support of CHF 306,000,000. The performance on cash was good. And critically, we reduced debt over the period.
And of course, if we remember, we had one stage and worried debt might materially increase. I will now take you through the results in a little more detail. Starting with Food, like for like sales were slightly up on the year, But the underlying performance was strong. Our hospitality business was closed for a large part of the year and our food business is also exposed To travel and office locations with a high dependence on convenience and food on the move, and these were, of course, impacted significantly. Therefore, excluding Hospitality and Franchise, you'll see we delivered strong underlying growth.
In summary, The repurposing of space towards core categories together with the ongoing transformation of our ranges helped to offset the loss of convenience trade. It's worth noting that these sales do not benefit from a direct online grocery presence, which for us are reported through Ocado Retail. You can see that performance excluding hospitality and franchise was largely consistent across the year including through the lockdowns at over 5% ahead of total like for like performance. Operating profit decreased 10% and margin was therefore down on the year. There's a lot to unpick here.
Firstly, we saw an adverse gross margin mix impact driven by the lower hospitality and convenience sales. This was partially offset by the benefit of business rates relief. In costs, we had the benefit of more efficient staffing and furlough support, although this was less than the related wages of furlough colleagues. We did also see increased COVID costs such as doorhouse and social distancing measures in our supply chain. And finally, we absorbed a number of Brexit headwinds in the Q4.
Turning now to the contribution from Ocado Retail. This has been an exceptional period for grocery online, and Ocado Retail performed strongly. As already reported by Ocado Group, the business benefited from higher than normal basket size and a consistent trading profile across the week. The exceptional item relates to business interruption insurance receipts due to the Andover fire. Overall, Ocado Retail generated a substantial contribution to group results, driven by this top line growth as well as excellent CFC and delivery efficiencies and reduced marketing costs.
Moving on to Clothing and Home. The overall result for the year was heavily impacted by lockdown and restrictions, as you can see from the numbers in the graphic opposite. The business also saw a steep decline in formal and occasion wear, which is partly offset by outperformance in casual clothing, kids and home. Similar to food, stores in high streets, shopping centers and city centers created an extra drag on the sales performance. As you can see, the online business built momentum through the year as we implemented MS2 and were able to capitalize on the change in customer shopping patterns.
This was a result of strong traffic, active customer growth, improving frequency and lower returns as well as a good service and fulfillment performance. Overall, clothing home had an operating loss of €129,000,000 At a headline view, while online profitability increased to 14% This was insufficient to offset the decline in store sales. Going into more detail, you will of course see that gross profit was down significantly As a result of the reduced store sales with the margin rate reflecting an increased mix of clearance sales as we manage stock flow. As I will outline later, better than expected sell through of seasonal stock has resulted in a reduced COVID inventory provision at year end. Operating costs reduced overall with effective management of staff costs supported by the furlough scheme, which partly covered the cost of furlough colleagues, Good cost control elsewhere and indeed the benefits of business rates relief.
Higher fulfillment costs online to service growth were partly offset by lower distribution costs to store. Some of these additional costs were also recovered in higher delivery income reported in revenue. Moving on to international. Performance reflected the pandemic impact and lockdowns across markets, partly offset by a strong shift to online sales. Clothing and Home reflected lower store sales in the Republic of Ireland and a robust performance with partners to manage the effects of the pandemic, partly offset by online sales, which more than doubled, as you'll see in the graphic here.
Food sales were more resilient, particularly in the Middle East and Asia, as COVID refocused customer demand to favor eating in. This helped to offset a weaker performance in travel franchise sales in Europe and disruption from Brexit in quarter 4. Overall, operating profit was sharply down. Gross profit declined due to lower store sales, only partially mitigated by online growth. Store staffing and other store costs declined as we benefited from government support and rent relief.
Distribution costs increased as a result of the growth of online sales and costs incurred as a result of Brexit, offset by lower distribution costs to stores. Turning to the group profit outturn. As discussed, headwinds in the food business and the decline in the clothing and home and international businesses We're only partially offset by the strong contribution from Ocado Retail. M and S Bank contribution declined due to a significant decrease in income from credit card travel money sales as a result of the pandemic. Lower net interest was driven by an increased pension credit.
And overall, the group delivered A CHF 41,600,000 adjusted profit before tax. Adjusting item charges in the period were CHF 243,000,000 I will cover next. And that left a total loss before tax of CHF 201,200,000 Within adjusting items, We have booked a charge for the organizational restructuring announced in August as part of the agenda to reduce costs and change our ways of working. Store estate charges reflect the accelerated rotation program with a new self funding principle, which Steve will talk more about. Adjusting items also include the release of the COVID stock provision following better than anticipated sell through of clothing and home stock as mentioned earlier.
Turning to cash flow. You may recall at the start of the year, we had anticipated drawings against our credit facilities of around €300,000,000 to €350,000,000 by the end of the year. But in fact, we generated cash in the period and net debt fell. This firstly was a result of better than expected EBITDA, the drivers of which I've already discussed. There are a number of other important points to note.
Firstly, we had a strong working capital performance in the period due to an extension in supplier terms in Clothing at Home, Strong Easter trading, a reduction in food franchise receivables and other initiatives. CapEx levels were much lower in the year As a result of careful management of discretionary spending due to the pandemic, it is worth noting that the cash flow contains both CapEx booked in the year and prior year accruals. Adjusting items largely relate to the organizational restructuring. There are, of course, other ups and downs. But overall, a financial net debt reduction Of around €300,000,000 in the period is robust in the context of the trading backdrop.
It is worth noting that our lease obligations also reduced. We continue to do a lot of work on our leases, and further color is included as an appendix slide in the pack. As a result of cash generation And preservation. We have more than €1,500,000,000 of headroom against our facilities at year end, which puts us in a robust position for the coming year. Our balance of maturities on our debt is also well spread and we have already refinanced our December 2021 maturity during the year.
Now turning to the outlook. Since year end, overall trading has been ahead of the comparable period in 20 nineteentwenty twenty and our central case for the year ahead, with even stronger results in the 5 weeks since most of our U. K. Stores reopened. Whilst we are encouraged by this performance, it is unclear how the recovery will develop, whether consumer activity will sustain a clothing at home and what the eventual pace and shape of recovery in hospitality and convenience in food will be.
Therefore, Our central case for the current year assumes a gradual return to more normal customer behavior. In this central case, U. K. Costs normalized to levels broadly consistent with 20 nineteentwenty twenty underpinned by the benefit of the restructuring. This will largely offset an increase in base pay rates, costs related to transformation and higher variable costs such as online fulfillment.
We have a strong program of capacity growth at Ocado Retail, but expect some normalization with respect to its economics. International continues to face headwinds with ongoing disruption in various markets. The business is also exposed to additional costs following Brexit, Largely due to the administrative burden on exports of food, particularly to the island of Ireland. Capital investment for the group will increase to similar levels to 20 nineteentwenty twenty. As we invest in the transformation, we start a program of store maintenance and accelerate rotation.
Our central case is therefore that we will generate adjusted profit before tax of between €300,000,000 to €350,000,000 And our ambition is to further reduce debt. As I've touched on before, our capital allocation model remains unchanged. The priority is to invest in the transformation. As we recover balance sheet metrics consistent with investment grade, we will, of course, assess the reintroduction of dividends. Although as we focus on restoring profitability, this is unlikely in the current year.
Overall, We believe the business is set up well for the medium term. And with that, I will now hand you back to Steve, who is going to talk more about the progress on the transformation and our plans looking ahead.
Thank you, Ory. Now in this section, I'll be joined by Stuart, Katie and Mel, who will give you more detail on how we forge the reshaped M and S through our Never the Same Again program, a strong food business positioned for growth with broader appeal and greater reach, A successful transition to M and S products on Ocado Retail and growing capacity. An omni channel clothing and home business Powered by strengthened and reshaped product engine is beginning to emerge and grasping the opportunities ceded by the pandemic to accelerate the rotation of the store estate. There are ambitious plans for our international business focused on partnerships and online growth. Firstly, M and S Food.
Now the objective for food is to protect the magic of the M and S brand by investing in our unique focus on own brand innovation, Modernizing the end to end supply chain and cost base and growing through larger, more relevant stores. Stuart is now going to talk about how M and S Food has been reshaped. He's over at our Clapham store today, one of the first renewal stores from 2019, which has delivered positive sales growth since then.
Thanks, Steve, and hello, everyone. As you know, the M and S food strategy is about protecting the magic and modernizing the rest. Protecting the magic means developing innovative products of outstanding quality, offering customers something truly unique. And we do this at consistent, trusted, great everyday prices that represent exceptional value. Over the past year, we've developed more than 1900 new lines, of which over 700 We're for the launch of our partnership with Ocado.
We're broadening our appeal with families by developing areas such as organic And core grocery products as well as repurposing our popular programs such as dine in for a family of 4. At the same time, We have invested strongly in value with the launch of our remarkable program, a range of store covered staples at everyday low prices. That's M and S great quality at trusted Everyday value. They have helped us drive our value perception to its highest level in almost 3 years And now represent around 10% of our total sales volume. Whilst we protect the magic of our unique products, We need to modernize how we bring them to customers.
We do this through mands.com, through Ocado And of course, through our wonderful stores. At the heart of our store strategy is our store renewal program, Like this store in Clapham. But renewal is not just about store design. Customers love these new formatted stores Because they carry a fuller range, more innovative concepts and a real focus around produce, bakery And core grocery. By the end of June, we aim to have 23 stores in this new renewal format, but also forty by the end of the financial year.
To reach new customers, we've also shifted our marketing spend Towards more brand building and towards social and social media. In fact, we've increased our social media spend by over 35% In the past 12 months, as we begin to come out of this pandemic, we're also building on our traditional strengths In food on the move, hospitality and convenience, but we recognize we can only do this if we modernize the rest, Modernize our systems, our processes and our operations to give us the flexibility An efficiency that we need. That's why we've removed over £180,000,000 from the cost of goods Over the past 2 years, which we've reinvested in value or offset against inflation. We've also delivered more than £20,000,000 of Ocado synergies. Having restructured our Store operations last year, we are now focused on driving further efficiency.
Through Project Vanguard, We have modernized our replenishment processes in store and added 3% to sales against our control stores in just the first phase of this rollout. This rollout of Vanguard will be completed by this year. The next stage of efficiencies will be supported by upgrading our systems to drive down waste through much improved forecasting and ordering technology. We've made some great progress in our food business over the past 2.5 years. But there is so much more opportunity.
We are determined to accelerate our transformation at pace And deliver a bigger, better and fresher food business. Steve, back to you.
Thanks, Stuart. Now while an expanded opportunity through our store channel is a core part of the growth story for M and S Food, The acquisition of 50% of Ocado Retail was a transformational step. And through successfully executing the switchover from Waitrose In September of last year, we bought M and S food online for the first time. Ocado Retail opens up huge new opportunities for M and S By giving us access to the fastest growing channel of the market, which I believe will see a permanent increase in share of the market as a result of the pandemic. Importantly, this is through a sustainably profitable model supported by the best technology and online distribution.
This is evidenced by the resilient operational performance and profitability delivered by the Ocado retail team over the past year. M and S regularly represents about half of all fresh sales on Ocado, reflecting the popularity of M and S products And the work led by Stuart and the food team on innovation and development of core categories. Mel Smith is up at Ocado Retail in Hatfield, And she's going to talk about our future plans for growth.
In my previous role as Strategy Director at M and S, I led the creation of the Ocado Retail joint venture. I absolutely knew that bringing together M and S's incredible food, Together with Ocado's innovative technology, we'd deliver an unbeatable customer proposition. Ocado Retail has the widest range in the market at Almost 40,000 products, double our nearest competitors, and we have the freshest food with the shortest chain from our suppliers to our customers. Our partnership with M and S and our relationships with unique small suppliers and all the brands our customers love Means we have the most differentiated range in the market. Our service is unrivaled.
We have a track record of 95% of Orders delivered on time come rain or shine and 99% of items delivered exactly as ordered pre pandemic. That's why our customers love us and we have the best Net Promoter Score in the market. Our revenue growth of 44% To a market share of 1.7 percent in the past year, it's absolutely proof that our partnership was the right decision. Switching to M and S was an incredible undertaking, especially in the midst of a global pandemic. But the switchover was a huge success.
M and S sales penetration is over 25%, significantly above pre switchover levels. The traditional M and S Heartland products like ready meals and desserts, As well as outstanding fresh produce, meat and poultry have become an absolute mainstay in our customers' baskets. We are rapidly expanding our capacity to reach more customers than ever before. In February, we opened a new automated Mini Customer Fulfillment Centre at Bristol, the first to go live since our formation. Mini CFCs Bring the efficiency benefits of our automated fulfillment model to areas of lower population density.
Our sites at Andover and Perfleet We'll open later this year and next year we will open our 7th CFC at Vista. This means we'll be able to serve many more customers. At peak capacity, these four sites will collectively add over 200,000 orders per week, increasing our capacity by around 50%. We also plan to rapidly expand our Zoom immediacy proposition with a minimum of 12 new sites being sought across London and major UK cities. These will fulfill more missions and give customers new ways to shop with us.
This is just the start of what our incredible partnership will deliver for both our customers And shareholders. We have begun to explore opportunities for further collaboration across new product development, data and joint salting. And we will continue to work closely together to deliver growth for both M and S and Ocado. Our partnership has brought together the best of food and technology, And I'm looking forward to continuing on our journey to serve more customers and create even more value for our shareholders. I'd like to finish by saying an enormous thank you to all of our colleagues for their dedication and support over the last year feeding the nation.
We could not have done it without you. Thank you.
Thanks, Meryl. It's been a year of huge upheaval in the clothing and home market. However, we've ended the year with a much stronger team led by Richard Price And a reshaped product engine powering an improved online trading platform. We've learned the lessons from operating as a pure play And an omnichannel business is starting to emerge. The Clothing and Home product engine has been reshaped around new trading principles.
And by autumn, we expect option count to be down by at around 25% on 3 years ago. The ranges are more contemporary, We believe there's been a marked improvement in style and value perception. In addition, we're beginning to partner with a curated range of guest brands. This helps us build strength in hero categories and relevance where we're weaker. For the brands, we offer an effective and efficient route to over 20,000,000 customers, And we're already trading with over 20 partners and the customer response has been positive.
In addition, we acquired the Jaeger brand in January. Its British heritage and reputation for tailoring and style makes it a good fit for M and S. Having a product engine is, of course, only one part of the story. As you've seen, one of my priorities as part of fixing the basics has been investing in our data and digital capability. We've built out a comprehensive customer data engine, transitioned our web platform to the cloud and relaunched Spark as a fully digital proposition through the M and S app.
To capitalize on this, at the half year, we created MS2, bringing together our online, digital and data teams To prioritize online growth and capitalize on our omni channel advantage, Katie is down in our cribs Causeway store to explain our plan for MS2.
Thank you, Steve. I'm here today in my local store to talk to you about how we're going to use our omnichannel advantage To transform and grow online at Marks and Spencer. Over the past year, mands.com delivered 53% revenue growth in U. K. Clothing and Home And had over 9,000,000 active customers at year end, a bigger active customer base in the U.
K. Clothing and Home business than any other omnichannel retailer. Despite large customer numbers, we're not yet number 1 in the market, giving us a huge opportunity for growth. Through MS2, we now have the ambition and real opportunity to push our online sales participation to well over 40% Of the total clothing and home business over the next 3 years. Our plan for this is made up of 3 parts: 1st and foremost, delivering the best Online offer and supporting this with brilliant digital selling and maximizing our omnichannel advantage Through our great service.
Having the best online offer is all about sourcing the best own label products and complementary brands, Which offer brilliant value for money and have strong sustainability credentials and thinking online first rather than aligning with the way the stores have historically traded. This means more focus ranges in our stores with online options and sizes in some categories, working with the right third party brands creating a halo effect, Getting the sourcing model right in scale categories Marks and Spencer is famous for, such as knitwear and lingerie, with test and repeat for seasonal fashion. The relaunch of the Sparks loyalty program and the Marks and Spencer app are at the heart of 1st class digital selling. We have relaunched Sparks, Which is free to join as a digital membership scheme. It now has over 10,000,000 members and has helped us to drive 3,500,000 app downloads, Putting the Marks and Spencer's ecosystem onto your phone.
For marksandspensers.com, this creates better traffic efficiency. We know that our app customers are the lowest cost to acquire and have higher annual spend than any other. For our customers, Sparks enables us to personalize the whole Marks and Spencer's offer when browsing online or in store based on our knowledge of their shopping habits over time. We have built new services into the app such as Book and Shop in Food, allowing customers to skip potential queues during the pandemic And Scan and Shop, enabling quick and easy contactless checkout. In store services such as video powered retailing Allows customers directly to contact colleagues in store, creating a contactless but full service customer journey.
As an illustration, in this store during lockdown, we were doing around 70 digital bra fits a week with a higher average order value than our in store bra fit. We're already planning more innovation on the app. In the summer, we'll launch Spark's Pay, bringing the ability to pay directly at the checkout using a credit product developed with our partner HSBC. So what about service? The last year has taught us that we can do so much more when we harness the power of our stores Drive online fulfillment.
We shipped over 10% of orders from store, and this helped us to drive 100% growth in online sales in quarter 4 alone. We think there is a great opportunity to permanently increase the proportion of orders fulfilled from store stock. Many of our stores can act as micro fulfillment centers, Enabling rapid click and collect for our customers. Back to you, Steve.
One of the biggest challenges we have had to face into is our legacy estate of 4 line stores. While we've already closed or relocated around 60 of these in recent years, the effect of the pandemic means we now need to move faster. The good news is that there has rarely been a better time to acquire new space. We have 17 new or extended full line stores in planning, including a number of former Debenham sites Over the next 2 years, our strategy for rotating the estate has been developed on the basis of stress tests, regional modeling and efficiency requirements. As a result, we're planning to reduce our full line store base from 255 to around 180 in a selection of prime and core markets.
This will be achieved by relocating around 35 full line stores to new premises and relocating 45 to a food store and closing in 30 markets. The economic case for rotation is strong. As an illustration, we consolidated Two stores in Northampton and Kettering into a modern spacious store with parking at Rushland Lakes. These were aging stores with heavily declining like for like sales And no business case for investment. Not only did the disposal proceeds of 1 store largely fund the closure cost of the other, But the cash contribution of the new unit generates a very healthy payback on the net capital invested.
Even more importantly, The new store was in its 2nd year of like for like growth before COVID. As many of you know, our lease structures have historically Made us less flexible than we would have ideally liked to be. However, we believe we can fund the future cash closure costs linked to the rotation program through the disposal of some of our freehold and long leasehold stores for redevelopment. These opportunities where the development value of the land is higher than for its use for pure retail. This includes the Marble Arch proposal that we've already announced, and we are in active discussions on multiple store and retail warehouse opportunities.
This gives us confidence of a strong path to funding the costs rotation of the estate. And overall, we expect to release at least €200,000,000 of funds in this way. Turning now to International. The objective of the international business is to deliver market relevant products to our partners, great digital service and to drive online growth through MS2. It's been a challenging year in our international markets.
India is still heavily impacted by the pandemic, and Brexit has added cost and complexity to our EU operations, We're working hard to mitigate. However, as in the UK, the crisis has in many ways accelerated changes we're already making. We have an ambition to more than double international online retail sales and build on the strong performance of last year. This will be delivered by up weighting digital marketing, expanding categories further with major marketplaces and entering to new markets such as the 46 countries announced in March. As the business scales, we expect to build local warehouse and fulfillment capacity to drive more rapid customer service and lower costs.
For our partners, we've implemented a fully digital showroom, transforming their ability to create curated ranges relevant to their markets. We've also begun to roll out digital stores with innovation similar to the UK, and we're increasing flexibility, efficiency and speed to market through an export hub At Hemmel Hempstead Warehouse. This has been a year like no other for M and S in our 137 year history. The fact we delivered a resilient trading performance It's due in no small part to the extraordinary efforts of my colleagues. I want to thank all of them for the contribution they've made.
It's also been the year where our transformation accelerated through the Never the Same Again program has moved into the next phase From fixing the basics to forging a reshape business, we have the right team in place, and I'm optimistic for the future. Food is strong And is well positioned to deliver underlying growth and progressively recovering hospitality and convenience. Customers are responding well to M and S Food Online Ocado Retail has exciting growth plans, which will benefit the whole group. The ReShape clothing and home product engine is gaining traction with customers. Through MS2, our online capability is growing in the UK and in our international markets, so we can begin to see an omnichannel clothing and home business emerging.
Our Spark's loyalty program offers huge potential to develop our relationship with our customers and grow our data engine. We have a clear plan and real opportunity to accelerate the rotation of the Store Estate. The cost base has been reshaped with an even greater focus on cash, Working capital and returns. It's early days, but the trading in the 1st 6 weeks of the financial year has been encouraging and ahead of our central case. I'm optimistic from the year ahead as we move on from fixing the basics, accelerate changing the trading businesses and build a trajectory for future growth.
Thank you.