Biz Net - Business News » Marks & Spencer

Marks & Spencer get nationwide re-fit

Alan — Thu, 26 May 2011 06:38:37 +0000

Marks & Spencer are hoping that tailoring new formats in stores to the needs of the local customers will encourage more shoppers through their doors. The trading environment is extremely tough at the minute and M&S are looking to build on their 13% rise in their full year profit figures. As well as being the biggest clothing retailer in the UK, they sell home wares and up-market food products.

They announced on Tuesday that the new store formats will be selling products against a five point criteria to fit the locality- affluence, competition, demographics, ethnicity and regionality. The general layout of the stores will also be greatly improved and new signs will showcase the M&S sub-brands to better effect than at present. Large M&S stores have been said in the past to be ‘confusing’, and these measures look to address this.

The CE, Marc Bolland, has told reporters that customer feedback had told them that their stores could be difficult to shop in. He said that these new ‘tester’ stores, part of an overall growth plan which they revealed in November, would begin trading in October. Most of Britain’s retailers are currently struggling as consumers are being hit by soaring costs across the board. Soaring Cotton prices are greatly affecting clothing retailers.

M&S has said that even though it has made a good start to this new financial year, it was expecting the trading conditions in the coming year to be very challenging. These comments echo previous concerns voiced by their competitors. Bolland said that the consumers were aware of the difficulties they would be facing in the coming months and that they were going to have to make some tough choices.

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Marks & Spencer survives winter storms

Alan — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 06:23:49 +0000

While quite a few of the U.K.’s largest retailers reported significant losses due to bad weather up to and during the holidays, Marks & Spencer says they did pretty well, considering. Marc Bolland, chief executive of M&S, said that employees had done a good job of “minimising disruption” to customers, and the company had “traded well” in difficult circumstances.

In the 13 weeks to the end of December, Marks & Spencer showed an increase in overall U.K. sales of about 4% over the same period last year. Food sales did not do quite as well as anticipated, though the company reported sales of £50 million in food on the 23^rd of December alone. They indicated that was a record; interestingly, analysts noted that the same figure was quoted as a record for sales on that date for the last two years.

M&S reported they had actually done better than predicted, with a rise in like-for-like sales of about 2.8%, and of course the numbers would have looked even better if not for the snow and ice that kept many shoppers from hitting the stores in December. Analysts figure that M&S probably lost between £50 and £55 million in sales because of the weather; Next lost about £22 million and Debenhams about £30 million for the same reason.

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Marks & Spencer’s returns to the good times

Alan — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 04:47:52 +0000

Marks & Spencer’s will be spending around £900 million to improve business in the UK. It was announced that the company, who has nearly 1000 stores, will be increasing its clothing brand while cutting out about 300 other non-food lines.

The announcement is touting M&S strengths, as reports indicate that business is up for the company by more than 5 per cent. The realignment and changes being made are getting done in an effort to build on the company’s strengths, say representatives.

These changes do not come at a time of loss for M&S, but at a time of increased profits. The new policies and protocols are described as an evolution toward what is making the company grow, rather than a pulling back from failures.

The focus for M&S will be its UK market. More than £600 million of the proposed total will be spent in the UK market. This will include a growth of total products from 7000 to 8000. A projected £150 million will be used for the company’s Internet business and a refurbishing of its website.

The new plan, which was laid out by Marc Bolland, the new CEO of M&S, is not really a deviation from the plans of former CEO, Sir Stuart Rose. It is, however, a clear direction of where the company intends to keep growing. It was an important step for Bolland to come out and announce the plan, experts say. The company will most certainly want to continue building upon the foundations that were laid by Rose and this plan does exactly that.

Bolland himself describes the plan as taking logical, practical steps. He states that he does not want to do anything radical.

The projected results of the plan are to have most of the UK sitting only 30 minutes from an M&S store and to increase international sales to around £1 billion.

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Marks & Spencer staff £81m cash handout

Alan — Fri, 28 May 2010 12:22:19 +0000

Marks & Spencer staff are expected to receive an overall bonus share that will total up to £81m after the largest clothing retailer in Britain reported a 4.6% increase in year on year profits stating that trading is satisfactory.

However, chairman for M&S, Sir Stuart Rose, stated that any consumers that are worried about the Budget on June 22^nd should rest assured that the company will maintain cautious for the year that is ahead.

Yesterday, Chancellor George Osborne, outline a new plan that included £6.2b of spending cuts and warned that there may be more cuts in the near future as he takes action to reduce the massive deficit of Britain.

Profits of the company before property and tax disposals at M&S increased from £604.4 to £632.5m over the last year back to March 27^th. There was a small drop in pre-tax level profits, but it was a much smaller drop compared to the billion pound drop seen in 2007-08.

This past Friday Investec Securities released a manifesto that outlined how M&S needs to proceed in order avoid receiving a negative return in profits.

In the document, the retailer is said to need to increase the speed of its supply chain and create a new range for the high street that contains something for everyone, and develop an online way to market a food service.

The broker service stated that the challenge facing M&S is to increase growth that is sustainable instead of growth that follows a circular pattern.

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Marks & Spencer loose a big boss

Alan — Sat, 08 May 2010 02:46:28 +0000

The finance director of Marks & Spencer has quit just one day prior to the new chief executive taking control of the company. Ian Dyson, who was the leading candidate for the position taken by Marc Bolland has chosen to leave in order to take on the position of chief executive of Punch Taverns.

Bolland, did not know about Dyson’s resignation until it was officially submitted this week, and his departure will toss an obstacle in Bolland’s path as he starts his tenure with M&S.

Dyson, who was with M&S since mid 2005 stated that although the timing of his resignation is not the best, his background in leisure management made the opportunity at Punch Taverns too exciting to pass over.

Dyson, who received an annual salary of £675,000 at M&S has a six month contract that may force him to work at the retailer up until October. His departure has brought back speculation among those in the finance world that Morrisons finance director, Richard Pennycook, may be tapped to take his place although it is not likely that he would be willing to change companies.

This is due to the fact that the two companies have a non-poach agreement that lasts for six months and Pennycock just received new share awards last January in order to keep him at the company.

Over at Punch Taverns Dyson will be taking the place of Giles Thorley who announced in March that he would be leaving the company. Prior to working for M&S he was the Rank Group finance director and before that the Hilton Group financial controller.

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George at Asda 3 month returns deal

Alan — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:12:42 +0000

One of the largest clothing retailers in Britain is about to take on its rival Marks & Spencer by offering a new much more generous policy on high street for shoppers that want to return goods.

Starting in the middle of this week, the George at Asda supermarket label will release its new permanent 100 day ‘no quibble’ guarantee for every item in its clothing range in a bid to stop the trend of fashion ‘throwaways.’ The new return policy is aimed to allow customers that are not fully happy with any item they purchase from the range to get a full refund for their purchase even if the item has already been worn and washed.

Asda plans to stand out against rival M&S’s return policy by showing that it has a strong commitment to offering quality clothing at an affordable price that is designed to last versus the return policy at M&S which has been reduced twice over the last four years spurring vicious customer complaints.

In spring of 2009 M&S shortened its return period from 90 days to 35 which was met with harsh criticism from its consumers. The company argued that most people return goods within 28 days and that around 66% return goods within two weeks.

The move at Asda by George follows a trial period of the policy on all school uniforms last July that offered customers 100 days to return any uniform purchased if they are not happy with the quality of the product.

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