Shareholder Engagement

Established in 2016, our Shareholder panel provides an opportunity for private shareholders to hear more about how we’re reshaping M&S and to share views on the business. The panel meets 2-3 times a year, mainly digitally but occasionally in person. We try to refresh the panel each year so that we can provide the opportunity to as many shareholders as possible.

Applications to be part of the panel for 2023/24 are now closed.

In 2023, we launched the ‘Share Your Voice’ campaign, aimed at overhauling company law to make it easier for individual shareholders who invest in UK plcs to have a say in the companies they invest in. An open letter was addressed to the Secretary of State, in support of a petition to:

• Help more investors engage by modernising the Companies Act.
• Give beneficial shareholders the right to direct information on the plcs they’re invested in, and plcs the right to easier visibility of who their shareholders are.
• Make email a requirement to shareholding registration.
• Recognise digital AGMs.

The letter, which suggested 5 specific reform proposals, was signed by the M&S Chairman alongside the CEO of the Quoted Companies Alliance, Chairman of the United Kingdom Shareholders Association, Director of ShareSoc and CEO of Shareholder Services Equiniti. The petition received over 4000 signatures. 

 M&S continues to believe digitisation is beneficial to supporting a growing enterprise economy and to achieve this, we need to start with changes to Company Law.