UK retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) will set out plans this year on increasing shareholder returns in the coming years, according to chief financial officer Alison Dolan.
At the group’s annual shareholders’ meeting, Dolan said M&S had a robust balance sheet, a net funds position and a strong investment-grade credit rating, as reported by Reuters.
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She said this would enable the company to invest while also increasing shareholder returns over the coming years.
M&S finished its 2025/2026 financial year with net funds, excluding lease liabilities, of £338.2m ($451.4m).
For 2026/2027, the retailer plans capital expenditure of £650m to £750m, with around two-thirds allocated to long-term growth in its food business.
In May, M&S said it expected a return to profit growth in the current year after a 23.8% decline in profit caused by a cyberattack in the year ended 28 March 2026.
The company also increased its full-year dividend by 16.7%.
Chairman Archie Norman told investors the business had entered its new financial year in “fighting fit form”, adding: “We’d like to be a business that delivers consistently high single-digit revenue growth and double-digit profit growth.”
According to the report, M&S has a 4.1% share of Britain’s grocery market, which rises to 4.6% when M&S products sold through Ocado are included.
The retailer’s long-term aim is to double food sales.
Chief executive Stuart Machin has said M&S’s refrigeration systems came under strain during June’s heatwave, when temperatures reached record levels, and that the group was reviewing all its refrigeration.
Last month, the retailer said it would commit more than £30m this year to cut prices across 65 food products aimed at family grocery budgets.
Those reductions cover fresh food, frozen and store cupboard categories, taking the retailer’s Remarksable Value range to 145 products.
