Sir Stuart Rose said that M&S is braced for a downturn that will last until at least 2010 at the Retail Week Conference today, though he hopes that the UK economy can avoid full-blown recession.

“It’s probably best to keep all seasoned hands on deck,“ he said, referring to this week’s announcement on his promotion to executive chairman from June.

Rose had originally said he would remain as chief executive until 2009, but that there is not yet a suitable internal candidate to take over as chief executive.

He said that much work had been done in the past four years to improve the quality of the management. He likened it to moving up from the Third Division to the Premiership; though cautious as always, he said that M&S has probably yet to break into the top four.

He believes that, by staying in place until 2011, the right skills and experience will have been developed for someone to take his place. “By the time I go they will have what is needed,” he said.

He also pointed out that much of the retailer’s middle management has never experienced a downturn before, having instead witnessed “ten to 15 years of good times”.

Rose said that the signs that these good times have now come to end first appeared in the middle part of last year, but people and even people in the Government, didn’t want to listen.

“I hope it won’t be a recession, but you can see how serious it is with what the Federal Reserve, European Bank and Bank of England have had to do yesterday to keep liquidity going,” he said.

On the economy and today’s budget announcement he added: “The problem the Government has got is that it hasn’t got many places to go. All the pips are beginning to squeek – and there will be pain before there is relief.”

For him, this does at least mean that the threat of takeover by a private company has rescinded, something which he is adamant would not be in the company‘s best interests. “I doubt anyone could borrow£10 billion these days,” he said.

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