M & S Case Study

M&S are one of the UK's leading retailers of clothes, food, home products and financial services. Some 10 million people shop with us each week in over 375

Marks and Spencer Group (M&S) is the premier retailer in clothing, foods and home ware within the United Kingdom. The company’s commitment to quality, value, service, innovation and trust is a key contributor to their success as a high street retailer in the UK. Their current core UK operations centre around three divisions, food, general merchandise (including clothing and home ware), and the financial services industry. Therefore Tesco plc is the prime UK retailer to analyse and compare growth, financial performance and the financial status of M&S Plc in line with other competitors within the same industry.

In the period up until the mid 1990's M&S had a market leading share of the clothing market. They used their resources and subsequent capabilities to exploit their differences from the competitors and create competitive advantage by:

It is very crucial for every business to have a strong supply chain network in order to satisfy its customers before the competitors do. M&S though being one of the UK’s largest retailers is criticised by its Finance

This report will demonstrate, apply and evaluate knowledge and understanding of key managerial disciplines of the chosen high street retailer, Marks and Spencer, in different real-world global contexts. According to the report by Deloitte, the retail industry is undergoing immense changes and faces a tough competitive

The company’s brand image in clothing and increasing business in food sector together with successful marketing strategies will ensure sustainability of business. M&S is investing in Multi-channel store (online stores) to increase its capabilities in this field which will be fruitful for the company in future as it already showed quit improvement in online sales. Further, the company’s commitment

The retail fashion sector is an enormous industry in the UK and there are many branded fashion retailers having

Marks and Spencer (M&S) p.l.c. is one of the largest retailers in the United Kingdom with a selling space of 12.5 million square feet, was established in 1884 as ‘Penny bazaar’. M&S sells clothing, food, footwear, gifts and home furnishings in its 760 stores around the world. The company’s wholly own and franchise stores operates in Europe, Hong Kong, Far East, Australia, Middle East, the Bahamas and Bermuda making a total of 34 countries.

This document/report throws light on the business environment of Marks and Spencers and the analysis of strategic position, strategic direction, success criteria and backed up by future recommendations for the company based on all the mentioned aspects. The frameworks used to analyse the company are:

In a highly promotional market we invested in giving our customers great value at a time when they are managing their budgets carefully. We managed our costs, capital investment and stocks tightly. As a result we delivered earnings in line with last year, and made substantial efficiency savings in our capital investment plans. Our strategy to transform M&S into a leading international, multi-channel retailer remains unchanged and has been validated by strong sales growth in these areas over the last year. We are making good progress but successful execution of our strategy requires us to adapt to both market opportunities and current market conditions. In November 2010 we set out a target to grow our revenues by £1.5bn to £2.5bn over the next three years. As a result of the deterioration in the economic environment since we set out our plan, we now expect to achieve £1.1bn to £1.7bn increase in revenues. While conditions in the UK are predicted to be more difficult than originally forecast, we are on track to deliver both international and multi-channel targets.

Marks and Spencer Company is one of the biggest retailers in UK, which it has known by providing the finest qualities of goods and services including clothing, home product, foods and groceries. In currently, M&S Company operates 852 UK stores, 480 international stores and e-commerce platform includes approximately 83,069 employees, while M&S Company is one of the UK’s leading market positions in Menswear, Women-wear and Lingerie products (Mark and Spencer 2016.

The store managers followed central direction on merchandising, layout, store design and traning. Every M&S store was identical in the procedures it followed, leading to a consistency of image and a guarantee of M&S standards. However, it also meant store managers were severely restricted in how they could respond to the local needs of customers. During M&S’s growth there were few changes to its methods of operation or strategies. Its reputation for good-quality clothing was built on basics, the essentials which every

Marks & Spencer was once a top-of-the-line company in terms of its quality and selection. However, it is reported that the company has become" an out-of-date, uncompetitive blur on the UK stock market. The decline for Marks & Spencer began in the latter part of the 1990s and due to the pressure of a "changing economic demand causing Marks & Spencer to undergo continual business realignment"¦" (IBM, Ltd. 2005, p.1)

The purpose of this essay is to analyse the current competitiveness and marketing strategy of Superdry/Supergroup PLC. Then investigate positive future avenues the company could take to increase growth, market share and sustainability in the retail clothing market. Currently Superdry have seen a huge increase in growth since they were listed on the stock exchange in 2010. Sales have increased by 329%, profit before tax has increased by 173% and amongst other increases they have seen a massive surge in e-commerce net revenue growing exponentially by 1586% (Supergroup, 2016). In a SWOT analysis carried out by Marketline (2016), they highlight how successful the company’s strengths and opportunities are with their multi-channel business, strong financial performance and global penetration all leading them in the right direction. In addition to the continued performance success Superdry have three principle goals set in place. Firstly, they want to build a lifestyle brand, secondly, drive awareness and breadth of the Superdry range, and thirdly, build a broader cross channel relationship with their customers (SuperGroup, 2016). It’s these three goals that will be used to formulate this essays future recommendations for the company, aiming to help keep the business moving in the same direction as it already is, increase its competitive advantage, and build on its solid brand platform by assessing the potential of entering into a new market.

Marks and Spencer (M & S) was started by Michael Marks and later joint by a partner Tom Spencer in 1884. It is one of the largest British retailers that sold clothes, home furnishings, food, gifts etc. and was formerly known as St. Michael. It has markets in Europe, Far East, America and Asia. The company suffered a series of losses and a dip in the market share from a few years before the stepping down of the then CEO, Sir Richard Greenbury, in 1999. In 2001 the company underwent a drastic strategic change and the