M&S chair Archie Norman: We are working in ‘ways we have never operated before’

Writing in M&S’ annual report, Archie Norman said the pandemic had revolutionised the way the retailer works with remote working being “only a small part” of that.

He said M&S staff were now increasingly “multitasking in stores”, decisions were being made more quickly and the retailer had an “action orientation irrespective of hierarchy”.

Norman said M&S is “determined to make our ways of working permanent and accelerate the aspects of our transformation necessary” to thrive in the new consumer landscape.

“This is why we have drawn up our ‘Never the Same Again’ programme to harness our new habits and use the lessons of this crisis to make what feels like three years [worth of] progress in one,” he said.

Marks & Spencer is often referred to as the nation’s favourite retailer, a stalwart of the British high street that has clothed and fed families for generations. But M&S has been floundering for almost two decades as its clothing offer fell out of favour and it was usurped by younger, cheaper rivals such as Zara and H&M. The retailer has gone from turnaround plan to turnaround plan since 2000, but time is starting to run out. As Britain’s favourite retailer loses relevance to today’s shoppers, Retail Week asks: can M&S be saved?

Norman said that from a financial standpoint at least, 2020/21 “is likely to be a lost year” for the business, despite the “drastic measures” taken by M&S to secure cash flow and drive sales.

“It is inevitable that we will emerge with more debt than we had planned and make losses for a large part of the year,” he said. “Whilst it is a challenge to forecast the future, our scenarios are based on a prolonged period of social distancing, trading limits and depress demand”.

Chief executive Steve Rowe, also writing in the report, said of M&S’ recent trading that sales of clothing and homeware had been “down to a trickle” – running 98.8% down year on year at its lowest point.

He also noted that despite clothing and homeware trading online throughout the crisis, “demand in the initial weeks for clothing was very low with only a gradual uplift since.” In the last three weeks, Rowe said online sales have been running at 20% up year on year.

The annual report confirmed a pay freeze for all executive directors, with Rowe’s take-home salary falling to £1.2m for the period, down from £1.5m in 2018/19.