Marks & Spencer is moving ahead under a new senior team from mid-2022, with former food boss Stuart Machin and former chief strategy and transformation officer Katie Bickerstaffe becoming CEO and co-CEO respectively as former boss Steve Rowe stepped down from the business after six years at the helm.
The new senior team is increasing the pace of change and repositioning the business both in the UK and globally. The retailer set out plans for the future under the ’reshaping for growth’ agenda towards the end of 2022. This includes accelerating its long-running store rotation programme to reduce clothing & home space and increase food space to enable the retailer to deliver on ambitious omnichannel targets. See Strategy
The ‘reshape for growth’ programme is gaining momentum, with group revenues rising 9.6% to £11.9bn in the year to 1 April 2023 (FY2022). This reflects robust growth across both the Clothing & Home (+11.5% to £3.7bn) and Food (+8.7% to £7.2bn) divisions.
While divisional margins were impacted by inflationary pressures and investment in price, the retailer notched up its highest statutory pre-tax profit margin since restructuring got underway back in 2016 at 4.0%, bolstered by a credit of £108m following the revaluation of its investment in Ocado Retail.
The retailer’s joint venture with Ocado has taken M&S Food online from 2020.
Innovation rating: 3
