Comment: M&S - the curious incident of the results in the night-time

The extraordinary mid-evening conference call on Wednesday night, when Marks & Spencer pulled forward its Christmas trading statement, has prompted speculation aplenty.

Although the hastily convened call, prompted by a partial leak of the M&S numbers to Sky News, focused mainly on the retailer’s seasonal performance there were of course questions too about the unusual circumstances in which it was taking place.

Among them was whether the leak was evidence that somebody, perhaps internally, has it in for chief executive Marc Bolland, whose turnaround plan has stalled as a result of harsh trading conditions and problems with its core fashion offer.

Bolland was insistent on Wednesday night that the M&S board and management were entirely aligned and his comment must be taken at face value.

Perhaps ironically, the curious incident of the results in the night-time has strengthened Bolland’s position. There had been mutterings that his position was under threat unless evidence of improvement appeared pretty sharpish.

But the events of the last few days have forced observers and investors to adopt positions and it’s been noticeable how many seem to have swung more firmly behind Bolland – albeit with caveats.

The rationale is that while M&S may not be firing on all cylinders, the time originally set for Bolland to implement his strategy has not expired and he should be allowed his term.

And there is also willingness to wait and see whether the new general management team, headed by John Dixon and style supremo Belinda Earl, make a difference to clothing performance as the changes they implement show through in collections.

As Bolland put it on Wednesday night, anybody expecting them to achieve a general merchandise turnaround after their six weeks or so running the show is “dreaming in daylight”.

If share prices tell the story, as many investors believe, then it does not seem to be one based on fears of strife in the M&S boardroom. Yesterday, after a steep fall in early trading, M&S’s share price closed less than 1% down on the previous day – not the sort of movement that reflects investor panic.

M&S’s numbers were certainly not great. The 3.8% like-for-like slide in general merchandise shows how much still has to be done to revitalise that division.

The last thing the retailer needs is division at the top but, on the evidence so far, that seems not to be the case. Let’s hope so.