Marks & Spencer profits fall after clothing struggles We are very pleased with food performance which benefited from our continued focus on delivering innovation, and unrivalled quality and provenance. Our international operations performed well in key markets and our multichannel business delivered strong growth. Mr Bolland also confirmed that Steve Sharp, the company's head of marketing and the man behind M&S's high-profile advertising campaigns in the last few years will retire next February. Mr Sharp introduced the "Your M&S" branding in 2004 and Mr Bolland said he had played a "pivotal role" in developing the brand. His departure comes at a crucial time for M&S as the company prepares to launch new marketing campaigns for its autumn and winter clothing collection. The collection, which was unveiled last week to positive reviews, is vital to M&S's hopes of turning around its clothing sales. The company says the new range represents a step-up in quality and style, so the new advertising campaign is likely to reflect this. Mr Sharp will be replaced by Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne, who joined M&S from Estée Lauder last September as director of strategy implementation and business development. On an underlying basis, which strips out one-off items such as the £75m cost of buying back bonds, pre-tax profits fell slightly from £687m to £665m. The City is likely to be encouraged by M&S's forecast for the new financial year. It says margins should grow by between 30bps and 50bps, that capital expenditure should be £775m rather than the £850m it was previously set at, and the company is targeting a "underlying profit improvement."