Marks & Spencer boss cant rule out price rises after retailer hit with extra £120m in costs from Labours tax bomb budget
Marks & Spencer bosses have warned they cant rule out price hikes after the retailer was hit with an extra £120million in costs from Labours tax bomb budget.
Marks & Spencer bosses have warned they cant rule out price hikes after the retailer was hit with an extra £120million in costs from Labours tax bomb budget.
The company will do everything we can to prevent price increases for shoppers, chief executive Stuart Machin said, although he admitted the company was facing pretty significant costs to mitigate against.
M&S is anticipating its tax bill to increase by £60million next year to around £520million following Chancellor Rachel Reeves decision to raise employers National Insurance to 15 per cent from next Spring.
Meanwhile, Ms Reeves also lowered the level at which companies have to start paying it.
Mr Machin told The Telegraph: We planned [for an increase] because obviously it was well noted before the Budget that there was going to be some National Insurance increase for business.
M&S chief executive Stuart Machin (pictured) said the company will do everything we can to prevent price increases for shoppers
However, he claimed the retail giant did not realise the Chancellor would also be decreasing the threshold, stating: We didnt quite see the double whammy coming up.
In addition, M&S is also bracing for a further £60million increase in labour costs from the changes to minimum wage - a cost the company had already considered prior to the Autumn Budget.
It comes as CEO of Sainsburys said changes to NI made by the government last week will add £140million to its costs next year, putting pressure on inflation.
To make matters worse, retailers have been dealing with high levels of shoplifting as store theft offences at M&S surged to the highest level ever last year.
M&S chairman Archie Norman previously told LBC News that stores across the country get very little help from police, even though retail theft rates have soared.
According to the Office for National Statistics, a total of 430,104 offences were recorded by police in the year to December 2023, up by more than a third (37%) from 315,040 in the previous 12 months.
Mr Normans comments echoed those of other retail bosses who accused ministers of allowing shoplifting to become effectively decriminalised, with many police forces failing to attend the majority of reports or gather any evidence when they do.
M&S is anticipating its tax bill to increase by £60million next year to around £520million following the Chancellors decision to increase employers National Insurance (Stock photo)
A total of 430,104 shoplifting offences were recorded by the police in the year to December 2023. The figure is the highest since current records began in the year to March 2003
Figures this year revealed under 40 per cent of shoplifting reports were attended by the Metropolitan Police between April 2022 and April 2023.
Speaking to LBCs Nick Ferrari on the issue, Mr Norman said: I think it [shoplifting] is a problem. I think I have said before, but its a worldwide problem coming out of the pandemic. Its happened everywhere.
We get very little help from the police and we have to accept that police are not interested in this sort of crime anymore.
Despite the worrying statistics, Mr Norman said theft at M&S is actually going down mostly because of the retailers own efforts and not those of police.
The High Street stalwart has pumped cash into crime prevention measures such as store detectives and camera systems.
