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By James Davey
LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) - The new boss of Marks & Spencer appealed to the British retailer's army of privateshareholders to back his attempt to revive its clothingbusiness, but some attendees at Tuesday's annual investormeeting remained fearful of another false dawn.
Steve Rowe, a 26-year M&S veteran who succeeded Marc Bollandas chief executive in April, has pledged to turn around theclothing business by improving ranges and availability, cuttingprices and offering fewer promotions.
His plan came with a warning of a short-term dent to salesand profit and last week the 132-year-old group reported itsworst quarterly clothing sales fall for a decade.
Rowe said in May that he would focus on the retailer'saverage customer, a 50-year-old woman he described as "Mrs M&S",who had been neglected in the pursuit of younger, morefashion-conscious shoppers.
"I know that it's a big ask for me to stand here today witha new set of ideas and ask you to trust me that things will bedifferent this time," Rowe told a packed meeting at London'sWembley Stadium complex.
"(But) I firmly believe that we can return our clothingbusiness to positive growth."
Small private shareholders account for about a quarter ofM&S equity, prompting Rowe to take steps to counter the mostvocal perennial AGM complainers by inviting a group to ashareholder panel "tea party" last month.
The tone of Tuesday's meeting was generally positive, withone shareholder, a Mr Clark, describing the CEO's speech as"inspirational stuff".
Some, however, were unconvinced.
A Mrs Smith introduced herself as "not Mrs M&S" andquestioned whether management understands its customers.
"In my view, the remark about Mrs M&S shows that you don't,"she said.
"It was in my opinion the most disastrous piece of marketingsince Gerald Ratner extolled the virtues of his silver-plateddinner set," she added, in a reference to an infamous speechgiven by the boss of jewellery chain Ratners in 1991.
"It does suggest to me that you still live in the worldwhere women dress from head to toe in one brand -- we don't ...We're individuals and we don't like being labelled."
Shares in M&S, down 38 percent over the past year, rose 1.5percent to 334 pence at Tuesday's close.
(Editing by David Goodman)
