With its 142 years of history, Marks & Spencer (M&S) is a British retail institution, originally a penny bazaar in Leeds with the radical proposition: “don't ask the price, it's a penny”. M&S built its first competitive advantage not on price alone but on simplicity and trust, principles that remain the foundation of the brand. From the 1930s, the company began bypassing wholesalers entirely, working directly with British manufacturers with quality specifications, and selling exclusively under its own St Michael label. By 1997, M&S had become the first UK retailer to record a pre-tax profit of £1bn, a milestone followed by a continuous decline triggered by stiff competition and overreliance on UK sourcing (until the 1990s, M&S’s policy was to sell 99% UK-made products). FY2000/01 ended with a £145m pre-tax profit. In 2000, the St Michael brand was retired. In 2008, M&S started selling external brands, which confused consumers. The following fifteen years saw clothing sales falling while food sales increased.

The current recovery, under chairman Archie Norman (the architect of Asda's 1990s turnaround) and CEO Stuart Machin from 2022,has restored M&S to its strongest competitive position in over two decades by returning to fewer, better products, quality and value for money. In FY2025/26, group sales grew just 1.9%, from £13.9bn to £14.2bn. The food division accounted for £9.7bn, growing by 7% YoY.When it comes to general merchandise, in FY2024/25, M&S held 10.5% of total UK clothing sales despite losing a fifth of its UK clothing market share between 2014 and 2024. Group profit before tax hit £881.1m in FY2024/25, the highest in over 15 years. FY2025/26 fell to £671.4m, down 23.8%, due to a severe April 2025 cyberattack that paused e-commerce operations for approximately eight weeks.

The turnaround plan is on at the legacy retailer, but what is driving the change? Rationalising the product offering, transforming the brand's style credentials, developing a new consumer and marketing strategy, and an operational rethink could represent a basic plan, but its execution seems to be what matters for M&S.

IADS Exclusive - The great Marks & Spencer reset A retail transformation case study

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