Shoppers can use technology to advise them on outfit choices based on their body shape and style preferences
Marks & Spencer is using artificial intelligence to advise shoppers on their outfit choices based on their body shape and style preferences, as part of efforts to increase online sales.
The 130-year-old retailer is using the technology to personalise consumers’ online experience, and suggest items to buy.
Continue reading...Pre-tax profits increased to £672.5m but retailer says it will reduce costs further as part of five-year plan
Marks & Spencer has said it will step up cost cuts in the year ahead despite increasing annual profits by a better-than-expected 41%.
Stuart Machin, the chief executive of the clothing, homeware and food retailer, said it was “at the beginnings of a new M&S” with “wind in our sails, and confidence that our plan is working” as pre-tax profits rose to £672.5m in the year to 30 March. Sales rose 9.4% to £13bn.
Continue reading...Animal welfare groups urge retailers to switch to slow-growing birds in face of record deaths last year
More than 80 million chickens died before reaching slaughter weight in the UK last year, with mortality rates the highest for at least a decade, reveal official figures.
Animal welfare organisations say the fast-growing chicken breeds that dominate production have higher mortality rates, lameness and muscle disease than slower-growing breeds. They are calling on retailers to switch to slower-growing breeds and provide more space for the birds.
Continue reading...Four years after it fell out of the FTSE 100 the high street brand is again boasting strong sales
Fours years after it fell out of the FTSE 100, M&S has turned around its fortunes to become the UK’s best retailer for women’s wear.
In May, strong sales figures were driven not only by bog-standard basics such as underwear and T-shirts, but by more fashion-forward categories, too. Now, sales of women’s party wear are up 49%, and knitwear up 23% in October compared with last year.
Continue reading...M&S says ‘short-sighted act of self-sabotage’ leaves no choice but to review position on UK’s premier shopping street
Marks & Spencer has been refused permission to demolish and rebuild its main store on Oxford Street in the West End of London in a win for campaigners concerned about the carbon footprint of redevelopment.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities confirmed that Michael Gove, the secretary of state, disagreed with the recommendation from inspectors to approve the plans and had “decided to refuse permission”.
Continue reading...Promotion is designed to help parents who are struggling to afford clothes amid cost of living crisis
Families are being offered money off children’s clothes in Marks & Spencer if they donate school uniform hand-me-downs, as part of a push designed to help parents struggling to afford them amid the cost of living crisis.
The second-hand uniform collected will be sold via Oxfam’s high street chain as well as via a new “back-to-school” eBay shop. The tie-up is an extension of M&S’s existing “shwopping” partnership with Oxfam, in which customers drop off old clothing in exchange for loyalty card perks.
Continue reading...WH Smith, Marks & Spencer and Argos among more than 200 firms that failed to pay workers legal minimum wage
Some of the UK’s best known retailers including WH Smith, Marks & Spencer, Argos and LloydsPharmacy are at the head of a list of more than 200 companies collectively fined £7m for failing to pay the legal minimum wage.
The businesses were also forced to pay out £4.9m to about 63,000 workers left out of pocket after violations of the rules were uncovered by inspectors at HMRC, varying from breaches related to asking workers to pay for aspects of their uniform to paying the incorrect apprenticeship rate.
Continue reading...Retail chain to invest £480m in rejuvenating its presence on the high street
Marks & Spencer is to open 20 large stores and create 3,400 jobs as part of a £500m plan to rejuvenate its presence on the high street after bumper Christmas trading.
The retail chain – which in October said it would close 67 of its “lower productivity” sites that sold clothes and homewares, about a quarter of its estate of bigger stores – said it planned to open the 20 new “bigger, better” stores in locations across the UK in the next financial year.
Continue reading...Marks & Spencer profits fall by almost 24%, although clothing, food and international sales rise
Marks & Spencer has said it faces a “gathering storm”, with next year likely to be more challenging than this after reporting a near 24% fall in profits.
The clothing, food and homewares retailer said sales rose 8.8% to £5.6bn in the six months to 1 October but underlying pre-tax profits sank 23.7% to £205.5m as its Ocado online grocery joint venture fell into the red and it pulled out of Russia.
Continue reading...Comedian and campaigner tells planning inquiry retailer is failing to use landmark building imaginatively
The comedian Griff Rhys Jones is the latest high-profile name to weigh in against Marks & Spencer’s plan to raze and redevelop its main London store, accusing the retailer of not making the most of its landmark building.
Jones, who presented the BBC TV series Restoration in the 2000s, which identified significant buildings in need of repair, told an inquiry into the development of the store on Oxford Street near Marble Arch that, having shopped there, he “would venture that M&S are not using the space in a very imaginative way compared to the possibilities old buildings offer. I wonder if the ‘unsuitability’ has more to do with the desire to create a much bigger floor space and offices.”
Continue reading...Mark & Spencer says 95% of materials will be recovered, recycled or reused amid growing opposition
Marks & Spencer has pledged that 95% of the materials in its Marble Arch building in Oxford Street, west London, will be recovered, recycled or reused as it fights back against heavy opposition to its plan to flatten the shop.
In the run-up an inquiry into the scheme, scheduled to begin on 25 October, the retailer said some materials would be reused directly on site within its new building as part of its efforts to “promote circular economy principles”.
Continue reading...The change, to be rolled out this week, will leave customers to judge whether goods are still fine to eat
Marks & Spencer is planning to remove “best before” labels from 300 varieties of fruit and vegetables in its stores to cut food waste.
The change, to be rolled out this week, will rely on customers using their judgment to determine whether goods are still fine to eat. The measure will affect 85% of the supermarket’s fresh produce offering.
Continue reading...Archie Norman backs UK plans to scrap parts of protocol, saying lorries require ‘700 pages of documents’
The chairman of Marks & Spencer has backed government plans to override parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, saying that some food exported south of the border now requires 700 pages of customs documents, partly written in Latin.
Archie Norman, a former Conservative MP, called on the UK government and EU to come to an agreement, saying the rules for sending food between them were “highly bureaucratic and pretty pointless” given that British food standards were in line with or higher than those of Brussels.
Continue reading...Retailer says it has stopped supplying its franchisee’s business in Russia, but the shops remain open
A Conservative MP has backed calls for dozens of Marks & Spencer stores across Russia to be shut immediately, suggesting Vladimir Putin is funnelling every rouble made in the country into the invasion of Ukraine.
Alicia Kearns, who hosted four Ukrainian parliamentarians in the House of Commons on Thursday, said any profits generated would be tainted by the killings and war crimes committed during the conflict.
Continue reading...Rowe to be replaced by head of food business Stuart Machin, with Katie Bickerstaffe as co-chief executive
Marks & Spencer’s chief executive, Steve Rowe, is stepping down in May after nearly 40 years at the business he joined straight from school.
Rowe, who has spent six years overseeing the beginnings of a turnaround in the retailer’s fortunes after years in the doldrums, is to be replaced by the boss of its food business, Stuart Machin.
Continue reading...Shahi Exports, which makes clothes for the UK high street, has agreed to pay staff minimum wage and arrears
India’s largest garment company has paid out an estimated £3m in unpaid wages to tens of thousands of workers, after two years of refusing to pay the legal minimum wage.
Last month Shahi Exports, which supplies dozens of international brands, agreed to pay nine months of back pay to about 80,000 workers, with further payments expected in the coming months that will increase the total paid back to workers to £7m.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Workers in Portugal picking berries ending up on the shelves of Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Tesco allege exploitative conditions
Farm workers in Portugal appear to have been working illegally long hours picking berries destined for Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Waitrose for less than the minimum wage, according to a Guardian investigation.
Speaking anonymously, for fear of retribution from their employers, workers claimed the hours listed on their payslips were often fewer than the hours they had actually worked.
Continue reading...At this time of year, manufacturers have a few new tactics to get us to buy less for more money
Getting value for money might not be your prime goal when buying Christmas presents but if you are planning to snap up chocolates or sweets for the ones you love, it pays to check what you are going to get for your cash. That fancy box or tub may come at a cost (financial and environmental) – and, contrary to appearances, it might mean fewer treats for the recipient, not more.
We’ve all heard about “shrinkflation”, where companies sneak through price rises by shrinking pack sizes, but when it comes to festive confectionery, it’s important to be wise to the other packaging tricks that manufacturers and retailers maybe hope we won’t notice.
Continue reading...Shortfall of 16p a day leaves children living on just rice as suppliers to Nike, Zara and H&M in Karnataka underpay by estimated £41m
Garment workers making clothes for international brands in Karnataka, a major clothing production hub in India, say their children are going hungry as factories refuse to pay the legal minimum wage in what is claimed to be the biggest wage theft to ever hit the fashion industry.
More than 400,000 garment workers in Karnataka have not been paid the state’s legal minimum wage since April 2020, according to an international labour rights organisation that monitors working conditions in factories.
Continue reading...Young’s Seafood joins calls for sustainable quotas of mackerel, herring and blue whiting to be agreed in line with scientific advice
The UK’s largest seafood processor is threatening to stop sourcing fish from the north-east Atlantic unless coastal states, including the UK and countries in the EU, reach a suitable agreement on managing populations this month.
Young’s Seafood has joined Tesco, Co-op, Princes, Aldi, Asda, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and other retailers and suppliers in calling for urgent action from ministers to manage populations of mackerel, herring and blue whiting more sustainably.
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