The future business strategy of Marks and Spencer (PDF)

Master's Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 2.1, Prifysgol Cymru University of Wales, language: English, abstract: This work examines why the clothing sales of Marks and Spencer have been falling in recent years and recommends a solution to minimize this issue that leads to the substantial financial losses. The work evaluates the internal and external environment of the company and concludes that the company must adjust a new strategy in order to compete efficiently in the industry. It is recommended to focus only on the basics which brought success in the 90's; stock with the third- party brands; merger with another company or focus only on the food business which is successful on the market.

The work draws attention to the fact that in the 90's the profits from the sales of clothing peaked and topped £1 bn. In 2008, there was an increase in the clothing sales and the profits peaked again £1 bn. However, after that year the profit has been constantly falling. Further investigations reveal that the drop of sales coincided with the appearance of many businesses which produce similar goods at the same or lower price. Moreover, the visibility of growing competition from the online angle of the industry and the fact that M&S was a latecomer with introduction of the online store have negatively influenced the performance of the firm in the clothing sector.