M&S at Wembley

The iconic Wembley Stadium hosted the British institution that is Marks & Spencer’s annual general shareholders meeting this week. The incredible venue set the stage for the high street retailers 1st quarter figures. Eagerly awaiting their fix of announcements were shareholders, press, analysts and retail industry types.

Coverage was dominated by the clothing and non-food poor performance, having fallen for the eight quarter in a row.

M&S chief executive Marc Bolland stated that despite the decline in M&S’s core clothing business, he’s hoping for change with the new autumn and winter ranges.

Model at M&S AGM 2013

 

photos from @SimonNeville

 

M&S AGM 2013

 

M&S AGM held at Wembley.

 

M&S AGM held at Wembley

 

What’s Next for M&S

The long term rebirth of M&S focuses on a social and environmental strategy which encompasses cutting waste, saving energy, trading fairly and animal welfare. This means many things such as ensuring M&S remains untainted by stories of shabby factories that collapse on Bangladeshi’s.

 

Customer experience was high on the agenda with impressive visions of customers scanning product codes with their smart phones to see exactly where individual items have been made.
There was also talk of increased focus on the digital business with the launch of a new ecommerce site next year.

Summary
  • 1.5 per cent drop in like-for-like sales of fashion and homeward.
  • M&S’s food business is flourishing, up by 4.5%
  • Sales had been hit by the poor weather in April.
  • M&S.com pushed sales ahead by almost 30%, boosted by the introduction of free next-day delivery to stores.
  • International sales rose by 8.7%.
  • To help tackle high youth unemployment M&S will be offering 1,400 unemployed young people one-month work placements.
  • Use of disposable plastic bags was up year on year.

Wembley & M&S Timeline
M&S the 129 year old group occupied a large retail space on Wembley High road in the early 1950′s and vacated the area in August 2005.
Marks and Spencer will be returning to Wembley as one of the anchor retailers at the London Designer Outlet (Wembley LDO) due to open later this year.
Wembley LDO

David Goodwin has been blogging since 2010 and is the author of Blog on the Block where he covers civic & social topics. Goodwin hosts the podcast, Pod on the Block. He is the founder and company director of user experience consultancy Uxfam Ltd.

Further reading