Hello, everybody. It's Archie Norman here, Welcome to the M&S 2023 Results Presentation. In a moment, I'm going to pass you on to Stuart Machin, who's going to update you on how we're progressing with the reshaping of M&S, then he's going to pass on to Jeremy Townsend, our redoubtable new Finance Director, who is going to take you through the detail of the financial performance, perhaps less arduous than in some previous years. Then Katie Bickerstaffe, hopefully now on two legs, will talk you through omni-channel and international. Now, I believe that all new leadership teams need to arrive like a thunderclap, whether they're coming from inside or outside the business, to create that new sense of direction, of electricity, of appetite for change.
What this set of results shows is not just a strong set of financial results, which they are, but also that acceleration of the pace of change, the drive for performance, and the drive for innovation at M&S. I always believe that when the results are strong, the chairman should say less. With that, I'm gonna hand you straight over to Stuart.
Thank you, Archie. Good morning, everyone, from our busy renewal store here in London Colney. Thank you for joining us for our full year results presentation. If you're watching this on the 24th of May, there is a conference call for analysts and investors at 9:30 A.M. this morning, where we will be happy to take your questions. Now to the results. It's been a strong year, despite the headwinds, as M&S invested in trusted value and did not pass on the full force of cost increases to customers. While this reduced gross margin, sales growth has been strong in both Clothing & Home and Food. We've delivered profit before tax and adjusting items of GBP 482 million. As you will remember, last year's profit included some business rates relief. Excluding that, underlying profits are up. Clothing & Home sales growth was double digit.
While store sales outperformed, online sales were also increased. Excluding the rates impact, profits were up nearly 10%. In our Food business, it was a tale of two halves. Our investment in value in the first half reduced margin and profit. However, a strong customer response to our value proposition drove accelerating sales and market share growth in the second half. The benefits from the Gist acquisition as well as operational efficiencies also supported an improved performance in our Food business in the second half, where profit, excluding rates, was down 2%. International saw a strong bounce back in partner demand and profit growth. This was despite exiting Russia and the ongoing impact of EU border costs in the Republic of Ireland. Ocado Retail generated a loss, but under new leadership, a reset of that business is underway, and it has substantial capacity for profitable growth.
Most importantly, free cash flow from operations was robust. This enabled us to successfully acquire and integrate Gist, our primary logistics provider, and to further reduce our debt. This disciplined approach to capital allocation means our medium-term growth plans can be funded and the board can restore dividends to shareholders starting at the interim results this year. In short, we've made good progress, but there remains so much to deliver in the year ahead. Over the past year, Katie and I and the executive leadership team have found a strong working rhythm, and I've asked Katie to raise the bar this year even further when it comes to our omnichannel strategy. I'm also delighted that Jeremy Townsend will be working with us now until May 2025, supporting us to deliver our plan.
On that note, I will now hand over to Jeremy, who will walk you through the financial results.
Thanks, Stuart. Good morning. I'll start with the group headlines, which highlight a year of strong performance. Group sales were GBP 12 billion, up almost 10% on last year, with profit before tax and adjusting items of GBP 482 million, demonstrating a robust performance despite significant cost pressures. Profit before tax and adjusting items was 7.8% below last year. As a reminder, business rates relief of GBP 59.8 million was included within profit last year. A focus on strengthening the balance sheet has delivered positive free cash flow from operations and reduced net debt, with credit metrics sustained at investment-grade levels. I'll now take you through the results in a bit more detail. Starting first with the profit bridge.
Excluding the impact of business rates relief in the prior year, the group generated an increase in profit with growth in Clothing & Home and International. In Food, price increases for customers were lower than the inflation experienced in costs, which lowered margin and delivered a slight reduction in operating profit. Ocado Retail had a difficult year and recorded a loss. This was driven by higher fixed costs from underutilized capacity, as well as lower sales, which were impacted by lower basket sizes, reduced shopping frequency post the pandemic. The contribution from M&S Bank declined due to pressures in the macroeconomic environment, causing an increase in bad debt provisions, predominantly related to the forward economic guidance. Net finance costs benefited from a higher pension credit reflecting the opening accounting surplus, reduced net debt, higher interest rates on cash deposits, and the partial buyback of our 2023 and 2025 bonds.
Adjusting items included store state program costs and costs relating to the Gist acquisition. As announced at the half year, a credit has been recognized relating to a reduction in the fair value assessment of the contingent consideration for Ocado Retail. I'll now take you through the business areas in more detail. The Food business generated another year of like-for-like growth, supported by investment in innovation and trusted value. Hospitality and franchise showed strong recovery, and we saw growth in categories such as food on the move, alongside basket building categories such as frozen and groceries. We performed well in events with ambient celebration, delivering double-digit growth on the prior year. While basket value reduced, larger baskets continued to grow and overall basket value remains well ahead of pre-COVID levels.
Operating profit decreased, although this was in part due to the inclusion of GBP 24.6 million of business rates relief in the comparative. Operating margins declined, driven by an investment in value as well as the impact of business rates, as I mentioned. However, in the second half, margins were ahead of last year, reflecting the benefits of the Gist acquisition. Looking at the drivers of margin in a little more detail, gross margin declined as a result of the previously mentioned investment in value, with price increases for customers lower than cost inflation of goods sold. Although operating costs increased by 5.7%, this was at a lower rate than the increase in Food sales, resulting in a beneficial impact on the margin of 0.7 percentage points. The increase in operating costs was largely driven by colleague pay increases and energy inflation.
Further investments were made in in-store technology and a new forecasting and ordering system. These cost increases were partially offset by savings and efficiencies from retail operations and the ending of the Gist management fee following the acquisition, as previously mentioned. The Clothing & Home business generated another year of like-for-like growth, supported by the benefits of an omni-channel model. Menswear and womenswear performed strongly, and sales also benefited from third-party brands providing customers with more choice. There was increased footfall and traffic into stores from the normalization of shopping behaviors post-pandemic. Online sales remained in growth with average order values up, supported by Click & Collect sales. Return rates increased during the year as customer trends normalized and reflected the impact of third-party brands.
Operating profit decreased largely due to a lower gross margin and the inclusion of GBP 35.2 million of business rates relief in the comparative. The H2 margin was lower than H1, with customer prices increasing by less than the cost of goods inflation. Looking at margin in a little more detail, gross margin reduced, as previously mentioned, with customer price increases lower than cost inflation. Cost of goods increased driven by sourcing and freight inflation, as well as currency-related cost pressures, which particularly impacted margins in H2. Similar to Food, the Clothing & Home operating profit margin was helped by the fact that although operating costs increased by 5.2%, this was at a lower rate than the increase in Clothing & Home sales, resulting in a beneficial impact on the margin of 2.7 percentage points.
Again, as with Food, the main drivers of increase in operating costs were colleague pay increases and energy inflation. Clothing & Home also made investments in technology to support the omni-channel offering. The operating cost increases were partially offset by savings and efficiencies in retail operations and logistics. The international business generated another year of growth despite a number of market exits, including Russia. Sales increased in the year, driven by Clothing & Home sales in India and strong partner demand in Asia and the Middle East. Similar to the U.K., sales growth was stronger in stores than online. With sales up 12.6% and with a slight increase in operating margins, operating profit before adjusting items increased by 15%. Ocado Retail revenue declined despite growth in active customers and orders due to lower basket size following an unwind from the pandemic.
Despite this, M&S grew sales through the channel. Ocado Retail EBITDA before exceptional items was down, reflecting lower gross margins, underutilized capacity, and higher fulfillment and delivery costs. The credit in exceptional items is driven by insurance receipts related to the Andover and Erith distribution centers. Overall, Ocado Retail made a loss after tax in the period of GBP 59 million, of which M&S's share was GBP 29.5 million. The group generated free cash flow from operations in the year. Working capital outflows were lower than expected, in part reflecting phasing at the year-end of around GBP 50 million. Capital expenditure increased with a focus on investment in the group's key strategic areas of store rotation, supply chain, and digital, which I'll talk about in a moment. Ocado Retail drew down GBP 30 million on its shareholder loan facility in the year.
The business is expected to require further cash requirements in the coming year with an additional drawdown of up to GBP 70 million. Cash tax increased as U.K. tax payments resumed. Adjusting items within cash flow relate primarily to the exit of the Russian franchise business, store rotation, and structural simplification. We acquired Gist at the half year, which resulted in a net cash outflow of GBP 103 million. The reduction in net debt is driven by free cash flow, with lease debt broadly level year-over-year. As I previously mentioned, the CapEx program is focused on our three strategic transformation areas: store rotation, supply chain, and digital. For the appraisal of investments in stores, we apply hurdle rates commensurate with risk, with a primary focus on cash payback.
Store rotation was focused on modernizing the store estate, including the opening of three full-line stores, six Food stores, and upgrades to Clothing & Home space. Supply chain expenditure reflects investment in infrastructure together with spend on upgrading vehicles. An investment in digital included replacement and upgrades of technology in stores, continued investment in website design, and investment in Food supply chain planning systems. In the year ahead, we expect to continue focusing on our strategic priorities with a similar level of overall investment. In order to fund the group's strategic transformation programs, the primary focus is on generating cash flow to fund investment. Hurdle rates are applied to store investments and supply chain and digital investments are prioritized on the basis of their expected impact on sales or cost reduction.
Investments in capital expenditure are subject to the group maintaining a strong balance sheet in the form of investment-grade credit rating metrics. Last year, the group generated free cash flow from operations and continued strengthening the balance sheet. This included buying back part of the 2023 and 2025 bonds, which helped to reduce gross debt. Investment-grade metrics were maintained for another year, and we are seeking to not only maintain these, but to achieve an investment-grade credit rating in the year ahead. The focus on cash flow, investment returns from capital expenditure, and an investment-grade credit rating creates a virtuous cycle which is expected to deliver an improvement in free cash flow from operations and a stronger underlying balance sheet.
This, in turn, provides the group with the capacity to resume dividend payments, and as Stuart and Archie have already mentioned, the board plans to do this at the interim. Now, looking forward to this financial year, we've had a good start with both Food and Clothing & Home growing sales. While the outlook is uncertain and our customers still face high cost inflation, there remains much within the group's control. Modest growth is expected in revenue, driven by omni-channel, as well as from the benefits of store rotation. We plan to make further investment in quality and trusted value, and we expect this will only be partially offset by actions to mitigate sourcing cost pressures and stock loss.
In the year to come, we will see the annualization of the Gist benefits and the delivery of at least GBP 150 million of cost savings, which will help in mitigating the impact of underlying cost inflation. Therefore, despite the uncertain outlook, the overall objective is to build on performance delivered last year. Thank you. I'll now hand back over to Stuart.
Thank you, Jeremy. Many of you came to our Capital Markets Day in October, where we set out our nine priorities to reshape M&S to deliver growth and value creation. Three of these focus on delivering profitable sales with a medium-term ambition for market share growth of around 1% in both our businesses through developing exceptional product and a trusted brand, leveraging stores and online to deliver omni-channel growth, building on the strength of the M&S brand to grow capital-light international partnerships. Two of our priorities are about improving operating margins with a medium-term objective of 4% in Food and 10% in Clothing & Home. These programs are structurally reducing the cost base and, of course, creating a high-performance culture. We are prioritizing investment choices in three key areas.
Accelerating store rotation and renewal, modernizing our supply chains, and creating a more engaging, connected customer experience. Our plans are underpinned by a disciplined approach to capital allocation. Katie and I will cover our progress against this plan, starting with our performance of our businesses before moving on to our cost reduction plans and investment choices. It was a strong year for Food. Sales grew 8.7% with continued good growth in core categories, such as fresh bakery and core grocery, reflecting our strategy to broaden our appeal. Grocery market share increased. M&S outperformed all major full-line supermarkets. Over the last four years, M&S Food has made a significant shift to trusted value, reducing the volume of promotions and becoming far more competitive, not just on quality, but on value price points.
With the rising cost of living front of our customers' minds, we've invested again this year in value. We've sharpened the prices of over 100 Remarksable Value lines, offering great everyday quality, but also great everyday prices, upholding the M&S quality point of difference. Remarksable Value sales were up 40% and products featured in over 20% of our customer baskets. We also locked prices on 150 family favorites, giving our customers confidence in the quality, but also the everyday value on the products that they shop most. We reinvigorated our iconic dine-in offer with new deals such as our steak dine-in for two, and we moved our dine-in proposition to Always On, providing permanent, affordable, better than restaurant quality alternatives to eating out. Exceptional product is at the very heart of M&S. We are a product organization.
We will never compromise on our market-leading innovation or quality standards. M&S Food has won over 200 tried and tested awards from our fair trade coffee to our handcrafted sausage rolls. We were named Good Housekeeping's Wine Retailer of the Year. Product development drove sales across all our categories with over 1,800 new lines introduced. For example, we worked with growers to launch our unique to M&S White Pearl Strawberries and introduced exciting new ambient lines for celebration events like Mother's Day. Mother's Day sales actually increased by 20%. We also reset ranges that support a bigger family shop, like in our soft drinks category or household cleaning. In addition, M&S continues to lead the way in animal welfare standards. In autumn, we became the first retailer to sell only slower-reared, higher welfare fresh chicken with our British Oakham Gold range.
Customers are noticing and responding to our investment in quality and our investment in everyday trusted value. Value perception is now at its highest in six years. We've maintained our leading position in quality and sustainability. All of this supports momentum as we enter this new financial year. I'm really pleased to report that it was also a strong year for our Clothing & Home business, with sales up 11.5%. Importantly, full price sell-through held steady on last year and market share has increased. Store sales were particularly strong, but online sales were also up. This was driven by the M&S app and strong demand for Click & Collect. Over recent years, we have cut the numbers of lines to create a more focused and edited clothing range. This action has enabled us to buy more deeply into core categories.
For example, women's denim, the department I'm standing in now. Sales have grown over several years, extending our industry-leading market share to above 13%. A more focused offer has also allowed us to buy more confidently into areas that drive our style and style perception. Dresses are a standout example. three years ago, our market position was sixth, and M&S now holds the third spot. Our performance has been achieved by an overhaul of our pricing architecture, modernizing our designs with forward-looking prints and taking a more confident trading approach with more open-to-buys, allowing us to test demand and use shorter lead time routes to replenish stock. Casual dresses were up 40% last year. As we have said previously, kids and home are important market share opportunities for M&S.
Here, growth was more modest up against tough comparatives, and we're looking forward to growth over the coming year. Our value in these categories has been strengthened, and new ranges and collaborations, such as Fired Earth, are starting to drive increased awareness. Our leading position in value, quality, and sustainability has been maintained. The really encouraging news for our Clothing business is that style perception has now moved up several places to take third position. It's been a good result in both Food and Clothing & Home. Offering fresher, better quality, and innovation and great taste in our Food business. Offering improved quality and style in our Clothing business. Across both our businesses, investing in trusted value, which has helped drive strong sales growth.
Katie will now pick up a really important part of our strategy, which is omni-channel, and I've asked Katie to also include Ocado in this update.
Thanks, Stuart, and good morning from me at our White City store. I'm pleased to confirm I'm firmly back on two feet. We've talked to you about the opportunity we have to increase digital engagement, online sales, and profitability through our work on omni-channel. Our goal is to increase customer frequency and spend by leveraging our national store and distribution network to offer a more convenient and consistent service. We know customers who shop multiple channels and products typically spend more and more frequently. An effective and profitable way to serve them is through our M&S app. The use of the app and associated Sparks memberships continues to grow, with our active app users increasing 40% to 4.3 million. Our sign-up campaigns, such as the Twelve Days of Sparks in December, gave this a boost, offering customers access to exclusive offers and rewards.
Our app aims to provide personalized shop front to M&S and Sparks for our customers and connect the store and online world with added value services. It's been a great year for online sales, with sales increasing 4.8%, supported by our Click & Collect growth of over 20%. Even better, more than one-third of our sales are now through our app compared with only 26% last year. Upgrades to our online experience have included one-click checkout with digital receipts and improved functionality in the app. digital Click & Collect is now being rolled out to the estate, enabling rapid collection for our customers. We've implemented self-service returns, reducing the cost of processing and turnaround time for resale.
Using in-store fulfillment allowed 8% of orders to be filled from stores, and we're also trialing the resale of returns to Simply Food stores through local hubs. The opportunity we have is to leverage our omnichannel store and warehouse network, further reducing costs and creating additional capacity for growth without the need for significant capital investment. We think building the best omnichannel offer includes a curated selection of complementary third-party brands. We now have over 140 partners, increasing relevance in categories where brands matter to customers, such as dresses, footwear, sports, and outerwear. Branded sales have increased 67%, and these now represent about 8% of our total online sales. Launches have included an extended sports offer through The Sports Edit and Clinique and Benefit in our beauty categories.
Our branded offer is attracting new shoppers and incremental spend, which otherwise would have gone to our competitors. Importantly, a large number of customer baskets also include M&S products. We want to be a great partner for brands, and that's why we're investing to make brand onboarding easier and simpler. We're also introducing drop ship capability to enable fulfillment from partner stock and reduce the volume of split shipments, therefore lowering cost to serve. It's still early days in our brand strategy, and we see substantial potential for further growth. You'll remember we invested in the Ocado Retail business to bring the best together, combining the strength of Marks & Spencer's brand, food quality, and innovation with Ocado's unique and proprietary technology.
The joint venture has already generated volume growth and buying benefits for M&S Food, with over GBP 600 million of sales through Ocado in the last year. As you'll have seen this morning, Ocado Retail's revenue in the year was slightly down, although Marks & Spencer's share of that revenue has increased. While active customers grew, revenues reflected reduced volumes due to lower shopping frequency post the pandemic and the impact of cost inflation on customers' baskets. M&S's share of Ocado Retail net loss reflects the effects of higher fixed costs from a new and underutilized capacity investment, as well as increased marketing and energy costs. Ocado Retail has grown by 40% since the M&S investment and has a large addressable market and substantial invested capacity for growth. This will enable it to grow sales and recover profitability in the medium term.
A new leadership team was appointed during the year, and the team's focus is on improving customer experience. This includes re-engaging lapsed and occasional customers, improved service, for example, resuming Kitchen Table deliveries, and investing in value through the Ocado Price Promise to broaden appeal. We're also deepening collaboration between Ocado Retail and M&S. A few early examples include the M&S core range available on Ocado.com being increased by over 300 lines, and efficiencies are also being scoped from a number of areas to reduce fixed costs as well as joint sourcing and logistics. As you can see, we've some powerful omni-channel assets which provide us with substantial opportunity and capacity for growth. International sales increased over 12%, growing ahead of partner retail sales, driven by Clothing & Home as partners restocked following the emergence from COVID.
This was a good performance considering the impact of exiting markets, such as Russia, during the year. Online sales were up, and are now more than double our pre-COVID levels, and account for almost a quarter of international Clothing & Home sales. As a result of strong shipments, operating profit before adjusting items also saw a healthy recovery. With European online sales having grown rapidly over the past three years, investment is being made to improve customer service and reduce our cost to serve. For instance, during the year, we opened a new logistics hub in Croatia, enabling the direct import of stock destined for EU markets. In the Republic of Ireland, where the food business continues to be impacted by Brexit-related costs, initiatives to mitigate this are underway.
Like in the UK, this includes investing in trusted value and also cost restructuring, as well as increasing the proportion of locally sourced supply and assessing new routes to market, such as our recent franchise trial with Applegreen. That's it from me here in White City store, and I'll hand you back to Stuart.
Thank you, Katie. Last year, operating margins were 8.7% in Clothing & Home and 3.4% in Food. Our objective is to improve these to 10% and 4%. Our cost reduction program will structurally reduce the cost base in M&S by more than GBP 400 million over the next five years, whilst also aiming to offset annual inflation with productivity improvements. To bring this to life, during the year, we rolled out a further 800 self-scan checkouts, including Clothing & Home. As a result, in stores with self-checkouts, around 70% of Food transactions are now self-serve. This helped us achieve our target of retail cost to serve of 10% in the year.
In Clothing & Home, the warehouse network continues to be rationalized as we invested in automation at the Bradford warehouse alongside changes to the returns process, as Katie highlighted. In the year ahead, we're planning for significant inflation, including colleague pay of more than GBP 100 million and GBP 50 million in energy costs. These headwinds will be largely offset by structural cost savings of over GBP 150 million. A key element of our plan to reshape M&S is the creation of a high-performance culture. This means a simpler, faster, digitally-enabled Marks & Spencer where delivering performance and driving change is everyone's responsibility. The support center is becoming simpler and more efficient, aligned to our strategic priorities. The technology, digital product, and data teams have been brought together as one team.
One of my first actions as chief executive was to create a culture which is closer to our colleagues, closer to our customers. That means being closer to our store operations. As part of this, I reintroduced a Chief Executive Officer suggestion scheme so every colleague could come straight to me, we call it Straight to Stuart, with any idea that they have to improve M&S. In just this first 12 months, I've received over 10,000 different suggestions from our colleagues. Our new Closer to Customer program also requires every single colleague in our store support center to spend a minimum of 7 days a year working in a store. We have raised the bar on talent. We've introduced new fast track learning and future leaders programs, we're also building the skills required for tomorrow.
We were the first retailer to offer an advanced data science and AI apprenticeship, over 200 colleagues have now taken part. At our Capital Markets Day, I said we would invest in growth categories, growth channels, and programs that will reduce our cost base. Total investment for year 2022/2023 was over GBP 500 million. This included the acquisition of Gist and around GBP 400 million of capital expenditure, a level which, as Jeremy has explained, we expect to maintain. The integration of Gist is going well, with a strong contribution to the second half, with more to come this year. Our capital expenditure is focused on three key programs. Firstly, accelerating store rotation and renewal. A brilliant example of this is Chesterfield store, where we closed the High Street store and shifted to the former Debenhams unit on the retail park.
The new store environment speaks for itself and customers are noticing and loving the difference. The store is on track to double the sales from the former store and payback of the capital invested is under four years. As we enter the new financial year, we're accelerating the program with eight new full-line stores and 10 new food stores. This includes five brand-defining stores in Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Thurrock Lakeside. It's a significant investment by M&S and we expect payback of around three years. We now have 80 stores in our renewal format, including one full-line store at Stevenage. The full food renewal format delivers a bigger, better, fresher, more inspiring store experience, which also creates opportunities for a larger family shop. Paybacks are looking promising at under four years.
The second capital program is modernizing the supply chain to create a lower cost network which ensures the timely flow of products. Clothing & Home are creating a five-year program of investment, which we will update you on later this year. It includes consolidation of fabric and clothing suppliers, systems upgrades create greater visibility, improved replenishment, and will reduce our excess stock. Using the logistics network to support our omni-channel offering. There is also the potential to drive productivity improvements from the shared transport across both Clothing & Home and through Food now we've acquired Gist. A plan for network modernization will also be developed in the coming year. The final investment area aims to create a more connected digital customer experience, which brings together loyalty and payment, supported by effective technology.
This year we launched a trial of Sparks Pay, which means Sparks members can spend with 45 days interest-free credit through dot com and through the M&S app. Before I close, a word on capital allocation. The group's ability to invest is driven by its capital allocation framework, which prioritizes the generation of free cash flow. Through this approach, we generated free cash flow from operations and net debt was further reduced. This allowed us to maintain investment-grade metrics, meaning we can invest in future growth and resume dividend payments at the interim results in November. In summary, one year on as Chief Executive, our plans to reshape M&S are beginning to drive improved performance. Customers are noticing the difference. In our food business, we've consolidated our reputation for great quality and great taste. We're now also being recognized for great value.
Our style credentials in clothing are starting to catch up with our leading value and quality position. Our emerging strength in omni-channel means we're beginning to offer an easier and more inspiring shop through our renewal stores, through app, through Sparks, through M&S.com, and of course, through Ocado Retail, which is being reset. Looking ahead, of course, the outlook always remains slightly uncertain, but we are in the early weeks of this trading year, and trading is on track and both our businesses are showing good growth. Much is in our control for the year ahead. M&S is such a special business with so much potential, and I'm excited about what we can achieve in the year ahead, building on the strong foundations we've established this year.