Chief Commercial Officer Paul Friston writes about why protecting our reputation for quality, innovation and value matters to M&S.

As the Chief Commercial Officer in M&S Food, I know that our unique status as an own-brand business offering the best food in the sector, means our customers are really passionate about our products – and rightly so.

When customers shop M&S Food, they know that they will get unique products that offer M&S quality and trusted value and I think it is important that we protect that.

At M&S, we take our product innovation very seriously. Together with our supplier partners, we invest significantly in innovation that drives the creative flair we are known for with our Food. 

For me, this is an argument about fair competition. Competition lies at the heart of the free market and is what drives innovation across a range of sectors, whether that is in medicine, technology or manufacturing.

The UK grocery market is one of the most competitive in the world and at M&S we thrive on competition. It’s good for customers and the food industry too, as retailers and manufacturers strive to offer great value and innovate to offer quality and a unique point of difference.

We’re clear what our USP is - we’re proudly an own-label business and being rated as first for quality and freshness, with food that you can only find at M&S, at value that you can trust in every sense, is what defines us and is how we’re protecting the magic of our Food business.

Delivering this isn’t easy and means investing in innovation and long-term supplier relationships so we can, for example, trial and use better technology in farming, use fewer preservatives in food and develop the unique M&S products we are famous for.

This isn’t just financial investment – albeit we invest heavily in R&D and invest to attract and retain the best talent. It’s about investing in the enormous amount of time, passion, creativity, energy and attention to detail that it takes to design, develop and bring a product to market and build its brand over many years. 

Through our approach we’ve introduced many firsts to the UK; from pioneering cold chain production, introducing the first shop-bought chicken kievs, seedless grapes and being home to delicious and much-loved character products.

We want to defend our intellectual property and support our suppliers – many of them small businesses that have worked with us for decades – so we can, together, go on creating and selling great products. That’s why we protect many of them with design rights and registered trademarks as, by doing that, customers can trust that they are going to get the quality, taste and provenance that they rightly expect.

However, we can only do this if we operate on a fair playing field and that means each player invests in their own product development and customer offer, and operates within a system that rewards innovation whilst safeguarding intellectual property.

There are alternatives to taking legal action but sometimes it is the only route.

IP law can be complex and, at times, pernickety, but it exists to fairly protect the unique ideas that people have worked so hard to create and underpins a competitive, innovative Food industry.

At M&S, we are sticking up for British win-novation and will continue putting our creative energies into working with our supplier partners so we continue to offer the best quality, most innovative Food in UK retail.