Love M&S26 May 2021 09:07
I gave the first 14 full-time working years of my life to this company, mainly working in the Store Development group until taking redundancy in 2004 when the walls came crashing down after profits more than halved and my department was cut by nearly two thirds.
Since then, though I've kept my shares through loyalty - and trust me, it remains strong with long-time employees - and lost a considerable amount of money by doing so, I've often felt we lacked a cohesive plan. Especially with regard to the older stores in smaller High Street locations where P&L has been an issue for decades dating back to when I worked with the Store Planning team in the early 2000's. Now it seems we have a good plan so a meaningful way forward (Store rotation) is finally being looked upon.
I very much doubt we'll ever see the days of being a £1b profit company again but the demise in recent years has hit me in the heart and after the disaster of the pandemic I feared more of a slash and burn approach to stock transformation that would hurt the communities M&S had been a part of for in some cases over 100 years.
Delighted to think in years to come a return to profitability and continuation of the rise and rise of (in particular) M&S Food will see the business strengthen and its position as a behemoth in the UK retail sector will continue.
Onwards and upwards!