Marks & Spencer will give a glimpse of how life is on the High Street when it publishes results next week.
The retail stalwart will deliver full-year figures for the year to April 2 on Wednesday.
Investors will be keen to see how the company is faring amid cost-of-living pressures.
At its half-year results in November, M&S delivered news of a dip in profits alongside a bleak warning about a ‘gathering storm’ of input cost increases and pressure on household budgets.
But analysts hope the retailer will be able to defy the gloom and cash in on shoppers switching from more pricey brands.
The retailer’s share price has risen 19 per cent over the past year.
Although shareholders will be hoping for cheery updates about M&S’s food and clothing divisions, they may be feeling more apprehensive about what will be said about the joint venture with Ocado.
The online grocer and tech firm reported a loss of £500.8m for 2022 earlier this year, as shoppers added fewer items to their baskets in the face of rising living costs.
Despite Ocado’s struggles, Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said in other business areas, M&S has ‘picked itself up and brushed itself down from dwindling sales, with a remarkable turnaround for clothing and homeware’.
The average M&S customer was also less likely to be deterred by the cost of living, while stores were in the right places to see ringing tills, analysts reckon.
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