Marks & Spencer – Corporate profile
Company overview
We are one of the UK’s leading retailers, with over 20 million people visiting our stores each week. We offer stylish, high quality, great value clothing and home products, as well as outstanding quality foods, responsibly sourced from around 2,000 suppliers globally. We employ over 75,000 people in the UK and abroad, and have over 600 UK stores, plus an expanding international business.
We are the number one retailer of womenswear and lingerie in the UK, a leading retailer of menswear and are growing our market share in, kidswear and home, due in part to our growing online business. Our food business sells everything from fresh produce and groceries, to partly-prepared meals and ready meals.
Now more than ever, we’re also known for our green credentials as a result of our five-year eco plan, Plan A, which see s us, amongst other things, aiming to become carbon neutral and send no waste to landfill by 2012.
Our international business
We now have over 290 stores in 42 territories and plan to expand our international business through both our franchised operations, joint venture partnerships and wholly owned plans in some of the world’s most dynamic emerging economies.
The current aim is to grow the international business to 15-20% contribution to Group revenues within the next five years. At our fourth quarter sales update on 31st March 2009, we announced sales in the international business were up 23% (13 weeks to March 09). Marks & Spencer currently has 15 stores in India and the store at R-City Mall in Mumbai is Marks & Spencer Reliance India’s first joint venture store. Marks & Spencer Reliance India is the joint venture entered into in April 2008 between Reliance Retail and Marks & Spencer with the goal of establishing Marks & Spencer as a major retail brand in India. The joint venture aims to open at least 50 new stores in India over the next five years.
Our People
As we continue to grow our business and invest for the future, it’s more important than ever to keep strengthening our team at every level, from the shop-floor through to management. To attract and retain the best talent in the industry, we have to demonstrate each day that M&S is a good employer, committed to making all our people feel valued and providing them with career opportunities and quality training.
We employ around 71,000 people in the UK, 75,000 worldwide. We have among the lowest employee turnover rates in UK retail, at 27% for customer assistants and 12% for management (as at July 2008).
About Plan APlan A will see us working with our customers and our suppliers to combat climate change, reduce waste, safeguard natural resources, trade ethically and build a healthier nation.
We're doing this because it's what you want us to do. It's also the right thing to do. We're calling it Plan A because we believe it's now the only way to do business. There is no Plan B.
What are we doing
There are five pillars of Plan A which represent the key areas where we believe we can tackle the biggest challenges facing us as a retailer. These five areas are: Climate Change, Waste, Sustainable Raw Materials, Health and being a Fair Partner
PartnershipsSome of the issues outlined in Plan A are too large to be tackled by consumers, businesses and even governments alone; that’s why building strong partnerships is at the heart of Plan A. We have linked up with some key external partners to share knowledge, develop solutions and support causes linked to Plan A which our employees and customers care about.
For example, WWF is helping us to address environmental issues associated with sourcing cotton, wood and fish and we are helping them to fund vital orang-utan conservation in the Heart of Borneo; Oxfam has helped us encourage clothing recycling whilst also raising money for their vital work. We have also worked with a range of partners for over three years to run our Marks & Start work experience programme for disadvantaged groups which has helped over 800 people get back into work in the UK.
