While the looming axe over M&S’s array of expensive fashion models might have grabbed the headlines, the reverberations of Rose’s cost cuts will be felt not just in marketing but across the business, particularly in investment in store modernisation.
This is a sensible response to gruesome trading conditions. The expensive refurb programme has now covered most of the stores and M&S’s huge ad spend is harder to justify in these more difficult times. Only investment in technology and supply chain will be spared – and only because this is spending that should ultimately make the business more efficient.
The big question with M&S is whether the problem is more about the business or the market. It’s actually a bit of both, depending on which part of the business you’re talking about.
In fashion, M&S is juggling the difficult act of being all things to all shoppers. Whether any retailer can do this in practice is debatable, but introducing a new brand focused on its core 45-plus women’s market is a sensible move to shore up its position in its most important sector.
Food is a different story. Out-of-kilter pricing, irrelevant promotions and poor availability have all been problems, resulting in the remarkable achievement of managing a like-for-like fall in a highly inflationary grocery market. The opening of 70 extra Simply Food stores seems to have done little but cannibalise existing sales.
More aggressive promotions like “Dine in for£10” and 99p Wise Buys are the right way to go, but are only a start and M&S needs to keep working hard to demonstrate that it really does offer value as well as quality in food.
Being the bellwether of the high street means that when times are tough you take the flack. The store at Westfield – one of the real stars of the centre – shows how much good work is going on at M&S. The challenge for Rose is whether he can get all parts of the business right for all its customers in what are brutal times in retail.
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