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M&S boss Rowe wants to be judged on 'pace of change' rather than trading outcomes as profits fall again

When business leaders resort to that sort of statement you know the trading outcomes have been bad

James Moore
Chief Business Commentator
Wednesday 22 May 2019 10:02 BST
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Steve Rowe: the M&S chief is trying to revive a business he’s been with for more than a quarter of a century
Steve Rowe: the M&S chief is trying to revive a business he’s been with for more than a quarter of a century

“We are judging ourselves as much by the pace of change as by the trading outcomes,” said M&S boss Steve Rowe as the business unveiled its full-year results

When a chief executive resorts to that sort of statement you know the trading outcomes have been bad. The retailer recorded its third consecutive fall in profits in the year to 31 March, with sales in retreat across the board, including at M&S Food, on which he is pinning his hopes for a better future.

But Rowe might just about have a point given where the business is right now.

M&S is no longer just fighting for its relevance. It’s fighting for its life in a sector that has felled more big names than a lumberjack with a souped-up super chainsaw. And there will be more to come.

The disruption the retail sector is experiencing is unprecedented and it will be a while before the market finds some sort of equilibrium.

After a succession of high profile and expensive hires failed dismally to revive the company’s fortunes (the turnaround programme at this business can justly be described as endless), Rowe, the insider, opted for a far more radical plan than any of them had dared to contemplate and is now in the midst of a slash and burn store-closure programme.

It has been accelerated. Shareholders have meanwhile had to face up to a sharply reduced dividend and the company has signed a pricey-looking joint-venture deal with Ocado to move into online food delivery.

Details of the £600m rights issue that’s funding it came with the results announcement: one new share for five existing ones at 185p a go. It could have been worse, and the results – a 10 per cent fall in profits to £523m – were at least more or less in line with what the City had been expecting.

So far so… well, good is not a word you’d want to use about M&S. Rowe was at least honest about that: “Whilst there are green shoots, we have not been consistent in our delivery in a number of areas of the business.”

Indeed not. He nonetheless maintained that the business is on track with its transformation and is “well on the road to making M&S special again”. That remains to be seen.

M&S doesn’t need to be special. It just needs to perform and show more of the consistency in delivery Rowe correctly identified as having been lacking.

He was also right about M&S needing to chart a new course in the wake of that disruption. But, at the same time, some of the problems this retailer has had have been entirely self-made. To prove he’s got to grips with them, the trading outcomes he spoke of need to show improvement.

With a potential FTSE 100 exit looming – M&S has held a place in it since the index’s launch – this is not a business on which you’d want to place a big bet.

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