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* Womenswear is weak spot in M&S performance
* Company has suffered from trying to be universal-analysts
* Future CEO Rowe has worked across M&S, background inclothing
By Li-mei Hoang and Kate Holton
LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - When Steve Rowe takes over thetop job at Marks & Spencer in April, the 48-year-oldsoccer-loving Londoner will have to succeed where many othershave failed: enticing women to spend on the Britishinstitution's fashion.
The 26-year M&S veteran takes charge of a firm struggling tocompete in the cut-throat retail sector despite outgoing bossMarc Bolland spending billions modernising the 132-year-oldfirm's stores, supply chain, logistics and website.
While the building blocks are now in place, Thursday'sChristmas trading update accompanying the news of the dapperDutchman's departure revealed the work that still needs to bedone: while food sales outperformed rivals, the performance ofwomen's clothing left a lot to be desired.
"Too much of it is cheap-looking and yucky," said oneshopper commenting under the online name Magnolia.
The painful decline of Britain's former retail powerhousereflects its inability to compete with the fast fashion of thelikes of Zara and trend setting offerings from Reissand Whistles.
While M&S is still Britain's biggest clothing retailer bysales, it is engaged in a fierce battle for the middle Englandpound with high street rival Next and John Lewis, Britain's biggest department store chain.
Once the go-to shop for everything from underwear to men'ssuits and grandma's cardigans, its large, brightly-lit storeshave, according to analysts, suffered from its desire tocontinue being all things to all people.
Aware of its need to serve its most loyal customers - womenover 50 - it has failed to attract those younger shoppers whoare willing to spend more frequently on fashion.
"It is timid and it is wedded to this kind of 'we have to becheap, we have to be premium, we have to be all things to allpeople'" said Neil Saunders from retail consultants Conlumino.
"Of course the result is it ends up being not very much toanybody."
EXPENSIVE
Founded in 1884 on a market stall in northern England, M&Sflourished in the second half of the twentieth century, bringingnew innovations to the nation such as ladder-resistant stockingsand new materials that helped build a reputation for quality.
Asked where she bought her underwear, Margaret Thatcher,prime minister from 1979 to 1990 replied, 'Why, Marks & Spencerof course. Doesn't everyone?'
In 1997 Marks became the first British retailer to postprofits of 1 billion pounds but a couple of years later itssales and value nosedived as cheaper and more dynamic brandscame to market.
Bolland, with a background in food and drink, spent big on redesigning products, stores, supply chain logistics and thewebsite to compete with more nimble retailers like Zara and H&M which offer a more frequent turnover of styles.
In 2012 he brought in Belinda Earl, previously at upmarketstore Jaeger, to resuscitate womenswear, with magazinesincluding Vogue lauding items such as a seventies-style suedeskirt.
But at the same time Bolland focused on growing the grossmargin - the difference between the price M&S pays for goods andthe price it sells them - leading to criticism that it was nolonger good value for money.
"It's quite expensive now; I noted before Christmas that ajumpsuit that would cost 60-70 pounds at Topshop is 99 pounds atM&S," Pandora Sykes, Fashion Features Editor at the Sunday TimesStyle magazine, told Reuters.
"In theory that shouldn't matter; Reiss, Whistles, Hobbs andJaeger would all charge considerably more. But M&S is stillprimarily a fruit and veg store; they will never totally shedthat and their typical customer is an older lady."
M&S's share of Britain's clothing and footwear market hasfallen from 13.9 percent in 1997 to 10.3 percent in 2014/15.
According to Interbrand Chief Executive Jez Frampton itstarted to struggle about 15 years ago.
"It got stuck in a very difficult position which was: Do Itarget younger consumers who are my future or do I look after mypresent? And that is a perennial problem," he told Reuters.
In the Christmas trading quarter, like-for-like sales at thegeneral merchandise division fell 5.8 percent which it blamed onunusually warm weather that deterred people from buying winterclothing and poor availability of some items such as coatssuited for more milder temperatures.
The drop matched the 5.8 percent fall from the previousyear.
The task of righting the clothing ship, particularlywomenswear, falls to Rowe, who worked as a Saturday boy at anM&S store in south London at the age of 15.
After a few years at Topshop he returned to M&S for stintsin menswear, homeware, beauty, e-commerce and a spell runningfood. He got the top job in general merchandise last July.
"Steve's done a great job in food, but let's face it he's arags man," one M&S executive told Reuters late last year.
In one clue to future direction, Rowe recently promotedQueralt Ferrer to overall design responsibility for womenswear -an executive known for a more fashion forward approach.
He may also seek to differentiate collections of clothesoffered under names such as Per Una, Limited and Autograph thatcritics complain are too similar, and he could consideracquiring third-party clothing brands to make a fashionstatement.
"We like the fact that Rowe can possibly connect the greatheritage of M&S... to the modernised venture," said Clive Black,analyst at Shore Capital.
Rowe is a keen fan of Millwall football club, where fansbask in their own unpopularity by routinely chanting "No onelikes us, we don't care."
At M&S, he is popular with staff, colleagues, analysts andmedia, but has to solve the conundrum of how to bring aonce-loved British retailer back into the hearts of today'sshoppers. (Writing by Kate Holton; additional reporting by James Davey;editing by Philippa Fletcher)
