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The story
Founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in 1884, in Leeds.1
History
Establishment
Marks & Spencer was founded as a partnership between Michael Marks, a Polish Jew born in Slonim (now Belarus), who had migrated to Leeds, England, in the early 1880s, and Thomas Spencer, a cashier from the English market town of Skipton in North Yorkshire. Marks worked for a company in Leeds called Barran, which employed Jewish migrants (see Sir John Barran, 1st Baronet). In 1884, he met Isaac Jowitt Dewhirst while looking for work. Dewhirst lent Marks £5 (equivalent to £695 in 2024), which he used to establish his penny bazaar on Kirkgate Market in Leeds.
Dewhirst also taught him a little English. Dewhirst's cashier was Thomas Spencer, a bookkeeper, whose second wife, Agnes, helped improve Marks's English. In 1894, when Marks acquired a permanent stall in the Leeds covered market, he invited Spencer to become his partner.
In 1901, Marks moved to the Birkenhead open market in North West England, amalgamating his business with Spencer's. In 1903, the two men were allocated stall numbers 11 and 12 in the centre aisle; there they opened the penny bazaar. The company left Birkenhead Market on 24 February 1923.
The next few years saw Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer move the original Leeds penny bazaar to 20, Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester, and they also opened market stalls in many locations around the North West of England. Spencer died in 1905, and Marks in 1907; Michael Marks's son Simon became chairman in 1916. Under Simon Marks, the company acquired other chains of penny bazaars, growing into a retail empire.
Domestic growth
Textiles were first sold in 1926, and food began to be sold from 1931. Marks and Spencer, known colloquially as "Marks and Sparks", or "M&S", made its reputation until the 1990s with a policy of selling 99% British-made goods. It entered into long-term relationships with British manufacturers, and sold clothes under the "St Michael" brand, after Michael Marks, which was introduced in 1928, and extended to food in 1941, replacing all other brands by 1956. It also accepted the return of unwanted items, giving a full cash refund if the receipt was shown, no matter how long ago the product was purchased, which was unusual for the time.
During the Second World War in 1941, M&S staff raised £5,000 to pay for a Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft called The Marksman. By 1950, virtually all goods were sold under the "St Michael" label. M&S lingerie, women's clothes and girls' school uniform were branded under the "St Margaret" label until the whole range of general merchandise became "St Michael". Simon Marks died in 1964, after fifty-six years' service. Israel Sieff, the son-in-law of Michael Marks, took over as chairman and in 1968 John Salisse became a company director. A cautious international expansion began with the introduction of Asian food in 1974. M&S opened stores in continental Europe in 1975 and in Ireland four years later.
The company put its main emphasis on quality, including a 1957 stocking size measuring system. In 1948, it established a Food Technology department. Staff in the canteens and cafeterias had hygiene training by the mid-1950s. For most of its history, it also had a reputation for offering fair value for money. When this reputation began to waver, it encountered serious difficulties. Arguably, M&S has historically been an iconic retailer of 'British Quality Goods'.
The uncompromising attitude towards customer relations was summarised by the 1953 slogan: "The customer is always and completely right!" Smoking was banned as a fire hazard from all M&S shops in 1959. Energy efficiency was improved by the addition of thermostatically controlled refrigerators in 1963.
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M&S began selling Christmas cakes and Christmas puddings in 1958. In an effort to improve the quality of their Swiss rolls, they hired the food expert Nat Goldberg, who made a major improvement across their entire cake range, which had lost the public's favour a few years earlier. As a later measure to improve food quality, food labelling was improved and "sell by dates" were phased in between 1970 and 1972. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine bombed the Oxford Street store of Marks & Spencer in London on 18 July 1969.
International expansion
In 1972, Marcus Sieff became chairman, remaining in place until 1984, and emphasising the importance of good staff relations to the tradition of the store while extending staff benefits to areas such as restaurants and chiropody.
Marks & Spencer expanded into Canada in 1973, and at one point had 47 stores. Despite efforts to improve its image, the chain was never able to move beyond its reputation there as a stodgy retailer, one that catered primarily to senior citizens and expatriate Britons. The shops in Canada were smaller than British outlets, and did not carry the same selection. In the late 1990s, further efforts were made to modernise them and also expand the customer base. Unprofitable locations were closed. Nevertheless, the Canadian operations continued to lose money, and the last 38 shops in Canada were closed in 1999.
Expansion into France began with shops opening in Paris at Boulevard Haussmann and Lyon in 1975, followed by a second Paris shop at Rosny 2 in 1977. Further expansion into other French and Belgian cities followed into the 1980s. Although the Paris shops remained popular and profitable, the Western European operation as a whole did not fare as well and 18 shops were sold in 2001. In April 2011, M&S changed direction again, with a plan to reopen a store that would sell food as well as clothing. In addition, the group opened several food outlets throughout Paris. The first branch opened on 24 November 2011, on the Champs-Élysées in a ceremony attended by the company's CEO Marc Bolland, the model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and the British Ambassador to France, Sir Peter Westmacott.
In early 1980, Marks & Spencer became the first British supermarket chain to sell packaged sandwiches, beginning with five shops. Demand was so high that M&S enlisted suppliers to industrialise the process, and other supermarkets followed. By 1990, the British sandwich industry was worth £1 billion. In 1988, Marks & Spencer acquired Brooks Brothers, an American clothing company, and Kings Food Markets, a US food chain.
Financial decline
M&S's profits peaked in the financial year 1997–1998. At the time, it was seen as a continuing success story, but with hindsight it is considered that during Sir Richard Greenbury's tenure as head of the company, profit margins were pushed to untenable levels, and the loyalty of its customers was seriously eroded. Another factor was the company's refusal until 2001 to accept any credit cards except its own chargecard. These factors combined to send M&S into a sudden slump: its profits fell from more than a billion pounds in 1997 and 1998, to £145 million in the year ended 31 March 2001.
In 2002, with changes in its business focus such as accepting credit cards, the introduction of the "Per Una" clothing range designed by George Davies, and a redesign of its underlying business model, profits recovered somewhat. In 2004, M&S was in the throes of an attempted takeover by Arcadia Group and BHS boss, Philip Green. On 12 July, a recovery plan was announced that would involve selling off its financial services business M&S Money to HSBC Bank, buying control of the Per Una range, closing the Gateshead Lifestore and stopping the expansion of its Simply Food line of shops. Philip Green withdrew his takeover bid after failing to get sufficient backing from shareholders.
In February 2007, M&S announced the opening of the world's largest M&S shop outside the UK at Dubai Festival City. On 2 October 2008, M&S opened its first mainland China shop, which is in Shanghai. Problems with the supply chain for the first few months of opening led Stuart Rose, M&S chairman, to describe failures in "basic shopkeeping".
Restructuring
Twenty-two unprofitable and minor food stores, including branches in Ripon and Balham, were closed in early 2009 as part of a cost-cutting measure. In August 2010, it was confirmed that the Grantham branch of M&S would close, along with two other Lincolnshire branches in Skegness and Scunthorpe, owing to low sales in these older format stores. These decisions met with protests from the local communities and petitions were signed in support of retaining the stores, although the closures went ahead.
The Retail Knowledge Bank conducted an audit of the company's brands in August 2010, and revealed that sales of womenswear were at a 10-year low. Drapers magazine claimed that Per Una was the only clothing brand not at risk of being axed while Marc Bolland, the chief executive, considered which brands would be retained.
In October 2010, chairman Sir Stuart Rose was a signatory of a letter to The Daily Telegraph stating that "The private sector should be more than capable of generating additional jobs to replace those lost in the public sector, and the redeployment of people to more productive activities will improve economic performance, so generating more employment opportunities", despite recent job cuts of 1,000 staff.
On 9 November 2010, Bolland revealed plans to strengthen the company's overall brand image and targeting sales of between £800 million and £1 billion for which company will increase capital expenditure to £850 million to £900 million over the next three years to fund the plans. The plan also involved the discontinuation of its 'Portfolio' fashion brand and the sale of electrical products. The company announced a new marketing strapline, 'Only at M&S', and that it would revamp its website. Bolland ordered a new store design in May 2011, and it was announced that the company would spend around £600 million between 2011 and 2014 on its UK stores.
In May 2013, some Marks & Spencer customers claimed that the chain's contactless payment terminals had taken money from cards other than the ones intended for payment. Contactless cards are supposed to be within about 4 cm of the front of the terminal to work. M&S investigated the incident and confirmed the new system had been extensively tested and was robust. It had rolled out the contactless payments system, provided by Visa Europe, to 644 UK stores.
In May 2013, the Best of British range was launched along with an overhaul of Per Una and Indigo. Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne became the marketing director, succeeding Steven Sharp in July. Bolland vowed to bring "quality and style back". In November 2013, it was revealed that Bill Adderley, founder of homeware chain Dunelm Group, had built a £250 million stake in M&S over the past 18 months. This disclosure was made under stock market rules which require any holding larger than a 3 per cent share to be made public.
In December 2013, Marks & Spencer announced that Muslim checkout staff in the UK could refuse to sell pork products or alcohol to customers at their till. The policy was announced after at least one news outlet reported that customers waiting with goods that included pork or alcohol were refused service, and were told by a Muslim checkout worker to wait until another till became available. The policy applied across all 703 UK M&S stores and prompted a strong backlash by customers. A company spokesman subsequently apologised and stated that they will attempt to reassign staff whose beliefs may impact their work to different departments, such as clothing.
On 7 January 2016, it was announced that Marc Bolland, who had been CEO since 2010, would step down on 2 April 2016, and be replaced by Steve Rowe, head of clothing, and previously head of the food business. In 2018, Stuart Machin was appointed managing director of Food to lead the transformation of the food business. On 28 June 2024, the company announced that it would be launching a new service for clothing repairs and alterations in partnership with the Sojo company.
In September 2018, television presenter and model Holly Willoughby became the company's new brand ambassador along with her 'Must Have' collection which launched on 27 September 2018. However, the company failed to order sufficient stock and many customers were left disappointed.
Marks & Spencer introduced a hijab in its school uniforms range in late 2018 and subsequently faced a backlash and boycott from some customers; the product is stocked for girls as young as three.
Store culls, developments and openings
Some 30 stores were identified for closure in 2015–2016. Several smaller stores were identified for closure in November 2017. On 31 January 2018, another 14 stores were identified for closure in April 2018, and eight other stores were earmarked for closure later, pending consultation. On 23 May 2018, M&S managers confirmed that an additional 14 shops were to be closed and another 86 were under investigation, and thus put on notice, because of falling corporate sales and customer footfall. This took the total to more than 100 stores closing by 2022, On 15 January 2019, the company named the next 17 stores to be closed. In May 2021, the company announced plans to close another 30 shops over the next 10 years as part of its turnaround plan, and in September 2021 it was confirmed that half of the French stores had been closed due to supply chain issues arising from Brexit.
In March 2021, M&S announced it intended to redevelop its largest store, the Marble Arch branch on Oxford Street in London, replacing it with a 10-storey building with two-and-a-half floors of shop space below several floors of offices. Despite protests from groups including Save Britain's Heritage, The Twentieth Century Society and Create Streets, the plans were approved by Westminster City Council in November 2021, and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan chose not to intervene. However, in April 2022, Communities Secretary Michael Gove blocked the plans to allow time for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to review the proposed redevelopment. In June 2022, Gove ordered a public enquiry into the plans; M&S said it was "bewildered" by his "baseless" decision. A two-week planning enquiry, starting in October 2022, looked at whether the project complied with planning rules concerning heritage and the historic environment and also address environmental concerns, notably the release of almost 40,000 tonnes of embodied carbon into the atmosphere caused by the construction of the replacement structure.
In July 2023, Gove rejected the plans to demolish and redevelop the Oxford Street store, stating it conflicted with policies on heritage and design, and involved significant embodied carbon impact and waste. As well as overruling Westminster City Council and the Mayor of London, Gove also overruled his planning inspector, David Nicholson, who had recommended the project should go ahead due to its importance to the viability of the Oxford Street area. M&S CEO Stuart Machin called the decision "utterly pathetic" and a "shortsighted act of self-sabotage". M&S subsequently launched a legal challenge against Gove's decision. In November 2023, the High Court allowed M&S to proceed with a judicial review, and after a two-day hearing on 13–14 February 2024, Gove's decision to block demolition was quashed by a High Court judge on 1 March 2024. In December 2024, Gove's successor Angela Rayner approved the store's demolition, citing the advantages of a concentrated development in a highly accessible location, the employment and regeneration benefits, and "potential harm to the vitality and viability" of London's West End if permission had been refused.
In its results for the 52 weeks ending on 30 March 2024, the company stated that it was aiming at having 180 full-line and 420 food stores in the UK, commenting that legacy stores were more expensive to operate. In 2025, Marks and Spencer opened a new store in Bristol's Cabot Circus shopping centre, nearly four years after a store in Bristol closed. This was one of 16 new stores opening across the UK in that financial year, as part of a £300 million investment.
New management
In May 2021, Machin's remit had expanded as he was appointed joint Chief Operating Officer taking oversight responsibility for Store and Central Operations, Property, Store Development, Technology, People and the Island of Ireland whilst remaining the Food Managing Director. In March 2022, it was announced that chief executive (CEO) Steve Rowe would step down after six years in role. Rowe stayed on as an advisor before officially leaving the company in July 2022. Machin was announced as his successor as CEO, with Katie Bickerstaffe assisting as co-CEO.
Animal welfare
In July 2022, secret cameras at an intensive dairy farm in North Yorkshire that supplied milk and cheese to M&S, Ocado, Asda and Morrisons captured lame animals "unable to get up to reach water" as some workers killed goats "of no value" at the intensive farm. Animals were seen with overgrown hooves and piles of dead goats were observed outside the property. A spokesperson for the British Retail Consortium said: "Our members take their responsibilities to animal welfare very seriously and will investigate these claims. Swift action will be taken against any breaches to the high animal welfare standards our members uphold." Marks & Spencer is a member of the RSPCA Assured food labelling scheme that states "any animals involved in a product's production have been reared to the RSPCA's strict farm animal welfare standards". The scheme has been subject to controversy due to animal abuse being captured by hidden cameras at some farms, with the RSPCA president calling it "utterly indefensible".
In May 2024, animal welfare activists released footage that was filmed at several intensive RSPCA Assured farms that supplied meat to Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Asda. The footage showed sick, dying and dead hens alongside living ones. M&S suspended one of the farms. In September 2024, undercover footage was released from an RSPCA Assured farm which supplied milk to M&S. Workers were observed severely mistreating cows. M&S immediately suspended the farm from their supply chain when the footage was released. The RSPCA also suspended the farm. An M&S spokesperson said: "We take animal welfare extremely seriously and set rigorous standards for our suppliers."
Marks & Spencer, along with Waitrose and other supermarkets, has phased out the practice of eyestalk ablation in its shrimp supply chain. It has also committed to source only free-range eggs by the end of 2025. In 2024, it joined a letter by Compassion in World Farming and other major UK food companies calling on the government to ban the use of battery cages and colony cages for egg-laying hens.
Acquisitions and partnerships
In July 2022, the company agreed to buy the logistics firm Gist Limited for £145 million. In November 2022, it was reported that the company had acquired the intellectual property developed by collapsed fashion marketplace Thread, and hired some former Thread staff including co-founder Kieran O'Neill, with the aim of adding personalised recommendations to the M&S website.
In June 2018, M&S announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft to explore the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into its customer experience, stores, and wider operations.
Product line history
The "St Michael" brand was introduced by Simon Marks in 1928 in honour of his father and co-founder of Marks & Spencer, Michael Marks. By 1950, virtually all goods were sold under the St Michael brand. M&S lingerie, women's clothing and girls' uniform had been branded as St Margaret until 1950, when the whole range of general merchandise became St Michael. The St Michael brand was retired in 2000 but returned to a limited extent as an emblem in 2021.
The synthetic fibre Tricell was first used in 1957 and lasted until the 1970s. Another synthetic fibre called Courtelle was first launched, nationally, by Marks & Spencer during 1960 and lasted well into the 1970s. Machine-washable wool first appeared in 1972, and Lycra hosiery first came in during 1986.
"Per Una" was launched on 28 September 2001 as a joint venture between M&S and Next founder George Davies with the contribution of Julie Strang. The Per Una brand has been a major success for the company, and in October 2004, M&S bought the brand in a £125 million, two-year service contract with Davies. He was to stay on for at least two years to run the company, with 12-months' notice required if he wished to leave.
In 2004, Sir Stuart Rose discontinued a number of brands including the menswear brand "SP Clothing", the "View From" sportswear range, the David Beckham children's range "DB07" and several food lines, as he thought the company's stock inventory management had become "too complicated". A version of Per Una aimed at teenagers, "Per Una Due", was also discontinued, owing to poor sales, despite having launched earlier in the year.
The company began to sell branded goods such as Kellogg's corn flakes in November 2008. Following a review by Marc Bolland in 2011, M&S confirmed it would begin to reduce the number of branded items on sale, instead offering only those that it did not have an M&S alternative for.
In January 2021, Marks & Spencer purchased the Jaeger fashion brand from its administrators. The £5 million deal was part of the firm's strategy to boost its clothing division with new names. However, it did not include Jaeger's 63 shops and 13 concessions.
From Wikipedia’s article on Marks & Spencer, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5