Marks & Spencer is expected to reveal figures this week that rubber-stamp its recovery under incumbent chief executive Stuart Rose.
The City is forecasting that M&S will be on track to post a £1 billion full-year profit for the first time since its 1990s peak.
The M&S turnaround comes amidst strong sales growth in both food and clothes, well as stores benefiting from refurbishments and a high-profile marketing campaign featuring 1960s fashion icon Twiggy.
Rose should confirm a £100m rise in pre-tax profits when he unveils results for the first half of the year on Tuesday.
Analysts forecast a rise in pre-tax profits of as much as 30 per cent, from £308.2m in the first half of last year, to between £402m and £414m.
This would put it on track to make profits close to £1bn for the full year, equalling the earnings made in 1997 under Sir Richard Greenbury.
Rose is just over two years into a three-year recovery plan. He has said his plan is ahead of schedule but has so far refused to definitively declare the retail giant's recovery as fully achieved. However, he has said he could be in a position to use the "R-word", as he calls it, in January next year.
No comments yet