Marks & Spencer have posted annual profits of £1 billion for the first time in a decade.

The pre-tax for the year to March 29 were 4.3 per cent ahead of the previous 12 months but came alongside a 1.7 per cent fall in like-for-like sales during the final three months of the year.

Chief executive Sir Stuart Rose said he expected market conditions "to remain difficult for the foreseeable future".

M&S paid out a record £91 million in bonuses to its 75,000 staff last year but has slashed the payout this time after it failed to hit internal targets.

The group will however pay out £12.8 million to its 62,000 customer assistants, while a spokesman added that high-performing head office teams could share in a £4 million bonus pot.

The results represent M&S's best performance since 1997/98 and exceeded market forecasts of £989 million.

The company now has more than 21 million customers shopping in its store every week, 400,000 ahead of the previous year.

Sir Stuart - who has led the turnaround of the business since 2004 - added that trading since the end of March had been "mixed", with sales suffering in April's downpours before recovering with better weather earlier this month.

The M&S chief also remains cautious over consumer sentiment, although the group still intends to spend up to £900 million on its stores this year.

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