Will Bolland's initiatives shape up for M&S?

Next week brings the main opportunity to find out how Marc Bolland’s strategy at Marks & Spencer is progressing when the retail bellwether posts full-year results.

It’s not the best of times for M&S. Like others, it has been suffering in depressed consumer conditions and dismal weather won’t have been helping fashion sales lately.

But the interest next week will be in how Bolland’s initiatives are shaping up. There is plenty going on – stores are being overhauled to make them more easily shoppable, brands are being differentiated and there is increased focus on multichannel including internationally, where a bricks-and-clicks model has been adopted.

Although general merchandise sales were down at the time of the fourth-quarter update, food has been on the up for a while. Last week the retailer launched Simply M&S, replacing the Wise Buys brand – a move seen as smart by the City, and mirroring similar developments at other retailers such as Waitrose’s Essentials.

Next Tuesday’s numbers may not be the most dazzling M&S has ever posted. Focus is likely to be on the bigger picture, and any signs Bolland’s strategy is bearing fruit.

Nimble Dixons must keep it up

Sebastian James’s tenure at Dixons could hardly have got off to a better start.

Fears about the retailer’s southern European business persist in the wake of the ‘Grexit’ crisis, but in Dixons’ core domestic market like-for-likes rose strongly and profits will come in towards the top end of expectations.

There is a mood of confidence at Dixons which, although it has taken its share of punches in the torrid trading climate, has modernised and changed to a degree that would have seemed unimaginable only a few years back.

One challenge over the next few years will be ensuring Dixons remains as fleet of foot as it has been because the pace of change in its markets is unlikely to slow down.