Our Chairman, Archie Norman, shares his summary of our transformation progress.

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Steve Rowe, CEO, shares an overview of the performance of M&S in 2020/21.

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M&S and Ocado: Bringing the best together

1^st September 2020 marked the beginning of the transformational partnership between M&S and Ocado, with customers able to order their favourite M&S products online as part of their weekly shop. The launch has brought together M&S’ 6,000-strong high-quality, innovative Food products and 800 great-value everyday Clothing & Home products, with Ocado’s award-winning online service. Over 750 new M&S Food products were created for the launch to offer customers a bigger, better range at the same or even better value.

Brands at M&S

Last year, we launched complementary and curated guest brands to M&S.com for the first time, offering our customers more reasons to browse and buy on the platform. Our first brand, Nobody’s Child, launched in October and the sustainably minded offer has stretched appeal with nearly 10% of purchasers new to M&S Womenswear. To date, we have launched 21 brands under owned, wholesale, consignment or collaboration models – such as our three drops of the exclusive Ghost x M&S range. Popular brands have included Elle Junior for Kidswear and Seasalt Cornwall and Sosander for Womenswear.

As part of our brand strategy, in January we purchased much-loved heritage brand Jaeger for £6m and work is now well under way to reimagine the brand with the first capsule collection under the new in-house team will be available from Autumn/Winter 2021. 

Relaunching our Sparks loyalty programme

The M&S ambition for Sparks is to build the UK’s leading retail loyalty scheme to support increased customer frequency and spend. In July, we relaunched the programme shifting from a points-based plan which was largely delivered through a physical card, to a digital experience enhanced with online services such as ‘Book & Shop’. Since relaunch, total membership has grown to over 10m customers, of which the majority are active. The relaunched Sparks enables M&S to build on recent investment in data science to create a more personalised relationship with members as opposed to the traditional model of targeted promotions. The relaunch has also helped drive 3.5m M&S app downloads, with M&S topping the Apple download charts in the autumn.

Expanding our international online business

As part of our focus to turbocharge our online business under our Never the Same Again programme, in March this year we launched 46 international flagship websites in new markets, instantly expanding our online reach to over 100 countries and enabling millions more customers to purchase M&S products online. The expansion was part of M&S’ commitment to drive international growth through online channels at pace under its MS2.

Marble Arch

As part of our efforts to emerge stronger from the pandemic under our Never the Same Again programme, in March we announced a proposal to redevelop our flagship store on Oxford Street – Marble Arch. First opened in 1930, the building has been expanded and altered many times and as a result, despite being a much loved store, today offers an inefficient and confusing experience for customers. The redevelopment of the store will see M&S work with partners in creating a new building which combines a modernised M&S store offering a full range of trusted value products across the bottom three levels, while repurposing the upper levels to offer best in class, Prime Grade A sustainable office space, where we anticipate a rebound in demand in the coming years.

Watch a short summary of the recent actions we’ve taken in our transformation to forge a reshaped M&S as we emerge from the pandemic.

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