Marks & Spencer Share News (MKS)

* CEO says agrees with chairman on 85 pct of issues

* UK consumer "fragile" and "volatile" - Rowe

* "Very pleased" with small online grocery trial

By James Davey

LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - The chief executive of Britishretailer Marks & Spencer, Steve Rowe, said he and hisnew chairman, Archie Norman, differed very little on thestrategic direction of the company and were working welltogether.

Given Norman's impressive track record of turning aroundstruggling retailers, most famously the revival of supermarketchain Asda in the 1990s, some analysts had feared hecould go beyond his non-executive brief of running the M&S boardand become a "back seat driver" of the business.

However, Rowe said on Thursday the dynamic between the twowas "absolutely brilliant, we're having a ball."

"When you've got a period of uncertainty in retail like wedo today, I genuinely believe that it's good to have anotherretailer to bounce things off of," he told the Retail Week Liveconference.

"I think the combination is that one and one equals three,"he said.

Norman succeeded investment banker Robert Swannell as M&Schairman in September last year.

Two months later M&S re-set its strategy, saying it wouldspeed up store closures and relocations as more trade shifts tothe internet and would re-position its food offer.

Norman said M&S had been "drifting, unfulfilling itscustomer promise" for over 15 years, failing to deliver the paceof change required.

Rowe, who became CEO in 2016, is a 28-year M&S lifer.

"We agree on 85 percent of everything we talk about, that'sbrilliant," said Rowe.

"There's 10 percent we don't agree on and we debate it andwe get to a solution. And there's 5 percent of stuff we willnever agree on. That's really healthy."

Both have said investors will need to be patient. M&S isforecast to report in May a second straight fall in annualprofit.

FRAGILE CONSUMER

On the sidelines of the conference Rowe told Reuters theBritish consumer was "fragile" and "volatile".

Britons are spending more on food but cutting back onnon-essential purchases as their spending power is squeezed byinflation and subdued wage growth.

More UK retailers are struggling. Last week Toys R Us UK andelectricals retailer Maplin collapsed into administration,putting over 5,000 jobs at risk, while Carpetright andMothercare both warned on profit again and said theywere talking to lenders.

On Wednesday fashion retailer New Look said it planned toclose 60 of its 593 UK stores, threatening 980 jobs, while onThursday the John Lewis Partnership reported a 22percent drop in annual profit.

Rowe also told the conference he was "very pleased" withinitial results from a small online grocery delivery triallaunched last year.

"Would our customers like it? Yes they do," he said.

But he said some questions remained unanswered and requiredmore work.

"Does it increase the basket (size of sales)? There's somemaths in here which is really important if you're going to havea profitable online business. Are we willing to pay for theservice? What's the cannibalisation (from stores)?"($1 = 0.7395 pounds)(Editing by Adrian Croft)