M&S boss warns high street chain does not have a divine right to exist

MORE Marks and Spencer stores could close as bosses yesterday admitted the firm had ‘no God-given right to exist’.

Chairman Archie Norman labelled the high street chain a ‘ burning platform’, suffering from ‘decrepit infrastructure, pretty weak IT, and old stores’.

The retailer announced in May that it plans to close 100 stores by 2022.

But yesterday Mr Norman said the size of the company’s portfolio had become ‘a drag on its performance’.

He told its annual general meeting that the closure programme would be completed within the next two years, adding: ‘I can’t tell you it won’t be the last.’

Steve Rowe, M&S’ chief executive, also warned: ‘There are likely to be more redundancies.’ The firm has already announced a 62 per cent fall in pre-tax profits to £66.8million while also announcing a review into its food business after a fall in sales.

Speaking in front of 1,000 shareholders at Wembley Stadium, Mr Norman said: ‘This business has a burning platform, we don’t have a God-given right to exist.

‘Unless we change and unless we develop it the way we want to, in decades to come there will be no M&S.

‘We have some decrepit infrastructure, we have pretty weak IT, we have a supply chain that needs a lot of change, and as you all know we have some old stores. Some of them are magnificent old stores, but some of them could do with some modernisation, and in some cases, I’m sorry to say, they need replacing.

‘So we’re running up the down escalator and we’ve got a lot of work to do. In a sense our task is to bring back in a modern form the M&S of the past.’

Shareholders also voiced their discontent. Ian Morris, a shareholder of 42 years, from Watford said: ‘I felt it was my duty to stand up and represent all those M&S employees who are losing their jobs through no fault of their own.

‘They deserve better. There is no growth in M&S and there hasn’t been for years.’