M&S boss says discounts reflect higher volumes
A bullish Stuart Rose was unrepentant over the squeeze Marks & Spencer has put on supplier margins as he told a packed Retail Week Conference audience: 'No-one has to supply us and no-one has gone bust supplying us'.

Rose denied that the retailer had upped its discount by 10 per cent, saying instead that M&S is imposing a 0.5 per cent levy for marketing and that it has equalised margins for full service and non-full-service suppliers at 10 per cent, from previous levels of 10 per cent and 5 per cent respectively.

Rose will be addressing suppliers at a convention tomorrow and said: 'The discounts reflect increased sales volumes and lower inventories. I am not running a charity here. If anyone cannot match up to our demands in 2006, then it's goodbye.'

Discounts ran at about 4 per cent when Rose joined the business, he affirmed.

Asked about his tenure at M&S, Rose said he still aims to fulfil his original pledge to spend five years at the helm of the retailer and hoped that he would be able to promote internally 'from the company's DNA'.

Priorities for M&S now are to expand the Simply Food format and to redevelop the main store portfolio. 'We spent£500 million last year, we will spend£500 million this year and we'll probably spend the same again next year,' he said. 'It's a massive undertaking.'

Topics