Inside M&S’s Oxford Street swanky revamp, the blueprint for its £700m growth strategy

📰 source: theguardian_business · 💼 business

m&s showed off the upmarket revamp of its pantheon store on london's oxford street, calling it the blueprint for a £700m growth plan across its 200-plus large stores. chief executive stuart machin said the retailer had a big job modernising the store and online experience, and that legacy old stores stayed profitable so previous leaders kept them open.

four years into the job, machin is investing in stores, supply chain and products. underlying profits fell to £671m last year after a cyber-attack knocked out online trading for almost seven weeks and hit profits by more than £300m. m&s has 227 full-line stores and plans to cut that to 180, while expanding its food arm to 420 stores. food sales rose 16% in the latest quarter and its fashion market share is back above 10%.

the next big project is knocking down its marble arch store next year, a 10-storey rebuild with just two and a half floors of retail, to be completed in four years.

why it matters: m&s's £700m growth strategy hinges on modernising stores like the pantheon, with food sales up 16% and fashion share above 10%.

source: theguardian_business
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