“Strengthen our UK property portfolio”
Over the past three year Marks and Spencer are undertaking one of the biggest stores investments. They are hoping to increase the number of stores that they have. They will do this by expanding and modernising their existing properties. For Marks and Spencer to be able to achieve the biggest stores investment they said that they will expand their space by 15% to 20% during the next four years.
During 2007/08 they increased the space by opening new stores and extending their stores. They had opened up to 100 new stores within the UK. This included 66,000 sq ft of Marks and Spencer high street stores and 7,000 sq ft of Marks and Spencer Simply food stores.
Marks and Spencer Simply Food stores have grown within the UK from 299 stores. They had opened 26 of their own stores and 72 franchised stores those of which are 64 BP forecourts. They believe that they have the potential of opening 70 new stores themselves in the year 2008/09.
Marks and Spencer have 29 different retail outlet stores throughout UK. They had opened a retail outlet store last year in Atlantic village in Bideford (Appendix 5)
“Drive our M&S Direct business”
Marks and Spencer direct is a very important part of their business to becoming a multi-channel retailer. By Marks and Spencer providing e-commerce website, it also includes home catalogue, flower and wine delivery Christmas hamper delivery, in-store food ordering service and lunch to Go.
With Marks and Spencer growing so fast their sale figures were up £60 million in the year 2007/08 to £220 million. Marks and Spencer have set themselves an objective to be able to achieve the target that has been set for the sale figures which is £500 million for by the end of 2010/11. (Appendix 8)
“Expand our International business”
In 2007 Marks and Spencer announced their plan of growing their businesses internationally to 15% and 20% of their total revenue groups for over the five years. This was a very good success for Marks and Spencer as they made good progress within expanding their franchises operation however they have also entered into the partnership in the world’s dynamic emerging economies.
In 2007/08 Marks and Spencer’s international business had contributed 7.9% of their total group turnover. When there sales figures where up at £712.9 million there sales went up by 16.8% and their profit was up by 33% to £116.4 million. (Appendix 7)
In 2007/08 they increased the number of overseas stores by 38 by bringing the toal number of stores to 278 which increased their pace by 18%. In the same year they entered Lithuania, Serbia, Taiwan and Ukraine.
“Integrate Plan A (our ‘eco plan’) into every aspect of how we do business, so that we grow in a sustainable way”
Marks and Spencer have come up with a Plan A which is a five year “eco plan” which puts across the social and environmental challenges that Marks and Spencer as a business have to face. Marks and Spencer promised to meet 100 of these 100 plan A commitments within the 5 years. Marks and Spencer have managed to meet 94 of the 100 commitment so far and are hoping to meet the remaining six commitments.
By 2012 Marks and Spencer are challenging to become a carbon neutral with minimal offsetting , send no waste to landfill from their operation, extend their sustainable sourcing, set new standards of ethical trading and help their loyal customers and employees live a much healthier lifestyle.
Even though Marks and Spencer have opened over 100s of new stores in 2007/08 they are cutting he total carbon dioxide emissions from their stores, offices and warehouses up to nearly 50,000 tones. They were successful in be able to achieve this by 9% decrease last year by switching their additional 21% to renewable sources.
Marks and Spencer are trying to ensure that they send zero waste to landfill from their own operation. Marks and Spencer have had a reduction of up to 6% in the amount of waste that’s sent to landfill due to the improvements to recycling of their construction waste.
In January 2008 Marks and Spencer had launched a Marks and Spencer and Oxfam clothes exchange. This was to make their customers to look for clothing at home to help fight poverty. Those people taking Marks and Spencer clothing to Oxfam were saving up to 1 million tonnes of clothing that were going to the landfill per year. The reason for why Marks and Spencer launched a clothes exchange with Oxfam is to tackle the problem of poverty and injustice to decrease the amount of clothing sent to landfill within UK. (Appendix 10)
“Improve supply chains”
Marks and Spencer supply of chain starts from cotton fields this is were one third of cotton of the worlds fair-trade is used. Marks and Spencer believe that their fair-trade cotton commitment affects the welfare over 100, 000small scale farmers. They also help to improve the standard of living within the local community.
To Marks and Spencer hope improving their supply chain transportation is a major investment that will help them stay one step ahead of demand in their market for fresh and new fast fashion.
Marks and Spencer supply chain and IT system is a very important aspect of their stores as this allows them to monitor the stores is performing efficiently and that they are providing their customers with maximum satisfaction. Marks and Spencer set themselves a challenge in 2007/08 which was to handle significantly large volumes, whilst making sure they are remaining cost-effective. (Appendix 10)
Increase companies sustainability
During 2007 Marks and Spencer converted all of their toilet rolls, Kitchen rolls and tissue to either forestry stewardship council certified or recycled paper. They used forestry stewardship council materials for more than 50% if their range of Christmas cards as well as publication to customers which include Marks and Spencer catalogue magazine.
Marks and Spencer have been very successful by increase the companies sustainability as Marks and Spencer were awarded World Environment Centre 24th Gold medal for international Achievement in Sustainable development, for linking sustainability with their supply chain and the operation of customers. (Appendix 15)
Build in success of food
Marks and Spencer believe that they have been a well committed first choice of fresh, high quality and convenient food that has been ethically sourced. By achieving this importance in 2007/08 were origin, health eating and improvement.
In 2007/08 Marks and Spencer sales grew by up to 6.9% to up to £4.25 million this was due to the contribution of the new space with the 98 Simply Food Stores opening including the 64 BP stores. Marks and Spencer market share for the year improved to 4.3% even though they’re was an increase in the high street competition. Over the next few years Marks and Spencer are hoping to increase their market share to over 5% of the total UK food market.
Marks and Spencer have recently started to increase the range of product offers so that their loyal customers are able to buy more of what they want at Marks and Spencer, this could be from whether the customer would like a ready meal or partly pre-prepared.
Marks and Spencer submit over hundreds of products every year for taste testing with their average score of 7.8 which was higher than their nearest competitors they managed to achieve a few perfect 10s this year including including our raspberry and panacotta terrine and asparagus and pecorino frittata. According to Marks and Spencer research by Allegra their fair-trade coffee served in many of their stores is the industry best selling.
Marks and Spencer are taking steps towards becoming a more convenient food shop. Their first was to open more stores out of town and retail park locations.
Accelerate store renewal programme
Marks and Spencer are in need of refurbishing their stores particularly for those who have been within their portfolio for many years. It is important for Marks and Spencer to help their stores run effectively and making sure they are bright and contemporary; they also want to make sure that they have easy to shop food halls. In 2007/08 Marks and Spencer managed to work on 86 of their stores including their franchises stores. This shows that 70% of all their space is in newly improved format. This means that they have put up new sign posts. (Appendix 5)
