Marks & Spencer news

As the UK’s retailers invest further in their sustainability initiatives, we round up developments from M&S, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Iceland. M&S trials private label refillable homecare products M&S is trialling a fixture to enable shoppers to buy pre-filled cleaning and laundry products in six stores. The solution, which has been created in partnership with Re, will see shoppers pay an ini...

M&S has announced the appointment of Alex Freudmann as the next managing director of its food division. He will take up the post on November 1 st and sit on the executive committee. Alex Freudmann will fill the vacancy created by Stuart Machin’s promotion to M&S CEO. This in turn follows Steve Rowe’s stepping down from that role last month. Who is Alex Freudmann? Alex Freudmann has an exte...

M&S has announced its 2021/22 financial results, reporting group revenue rose 6.9% versus 2019/20, which it said was more comparable than the 2020/21 year given the pandemic’s effects on its business. Revenue reached £10.9 bn, while profit before tax rose 29.7% to £522.9m. Key figures for Food The retailer reported that M&S Food grew revenue by 10.1%, while excluding the performance of its ...

Marks & Spencer (M&S) launched an impressive new concept store in a former Debenhams department store site. The M&S ‘store of the future’ was opened on the Roaring Meg retail park in Stevenage on Thursday 28 April 2022. The 75,000 sq. ft M&S store overs two floors, with the food hall, women’s clothing and a beauty department on the ground floor and homeware, baby and kids wear, an opticians, a...

M&S has announced that Steve Rowe will stand down as CEO at the retailer’s preliminary results on May 25 th as part of a planned succession programme. He will be succeeded by Stuart Machin, Chief Operating Officer and MD of Food with Katie Bickerstaffe promoted to the new role of co-chief executive. Steve Rowe’s multiple achievements as CEO Often it takes an outsider to deliver radical c...

A group of leading UK grocers has joined forces to launch a Refill Coalition to co-design and develop innovation refill solution The Refill Coalition brings together M&S, Morrisons, Ocado and Waitrose & Partners with supply chain solution specialists CHEP. The group was convened by Unpackaged, a pioneer in zero waste retail business models. The Coalition will explore how key food staples (e...

Marks & Spencer announced an online and in-store partnership with premium beauty brand Clinique. This partnership is part of M&S Beauty’s plan to focus on skincare and roll-out of more third-party brands to help M&S stay relevant and widen its appeal.    ‘A compelling beauty offer is part of our plans to reshape M&S’ From this summer, around 500 Clinique products will be available on M&S....

Loyalty in food-to-go has become increasingly important since the start of the pandemic as operators tried to maintain customer engagement . Now, retailers are starting to include food-to-go as part of their loyalty schemes, with Tesco and M&S announcing changes to their Clubcard and Sparks schemes over the weekend that will directly impact food-to-go shoppers.   Tesco Over the weekend...

Ocado Retail sales were up 4.6% in 2021 (52 weeks to 28 th  November) but the Group made a loss before tax of (£176.9)m. Ocado Retail: capacity increases offset a normalising basket Ocado Retail revenue increased by 4.6% to £2.3bn. An increase in customer numbers (up 22.4% to 832,000) and orders (up 11.9% to 357,000) offset a declining, normalising basket size of (5.8)% to £129. Although or...

We highlight the latest AR and Live Shopping innovations from Ulta Beauty and M&S. Ulta launches shoppable AR lens on Snapchat Ulta has introduced a new shopping experience offering a shoppable AR lens on Snapchat. The new feature allows Snapchat users to virtually try-on beauty looks and easily find and shop the relevant beauty products. Leveraging on Snapchat’s AR try-on innovation...