Marks & Spencer of the UK has announced its results for the year to end March 2018. While group revenue is stable, pre-tax profit is down 62% to £67m. Exactly ten years ago, M&S was announcing profits of £1billion. The recently appointed chairman Archie Norman had a long list of mea culpas: the website is too slow, the warehouse incapable of handling peak order volumes, the food overpriced, the clothing ranges too confusing. Most importantly, the company has been too slow to react to the rapid shifts in consumer habits. Although the blueprint for the future is not substantially different from that announced by CEO Steve Rowe in 2016, it will be accelerated in the light of the discovery that closing stores need not materially reduce overall sales. Most of the group's problems are seen as fixable. The question is whether the costs will be worth it and whether investors have the patience to endure a five-year programme of change. Some analysts are sceptical. For example, the combination of mid-price fashion with premium food and a bit of furniture is not widely accepted as a viable model.