Showtime that haunts Marks

The speed with which Marc Bolland’s critics moved to dance on his grave with his departure from Marks and Spencer is unedifying. The tiny half-pence rise in the shares, albeit in a plunging market, suggests that not everyone is overexcited about a change that was likely to take place in the next 18 months anyway.

With the possible exception of Sir Stuart Rose, who briefly took M&S profits back to the magic billion pound mark left by the veteran old guard boss Sir Richard Greenbury, the careers of most M&S bosses since the turn of the millennium have been marked by disappointment. This l ong- forgotten cast includes Peter Salsbury, ousted in 2002, Roger holmes and Luc Vandervelde, sacked in 2004, and now Bolland, retiring early.

Bolland’s successor Steve Rowe, an M&S lifer with a salesman’s patter, receives a decent legacy.

The company inherited by Bolland needed a great deal of refurbishment, much of it not visible to the naked eye. And that which is visible to the public receives scrutiny way above anything else in British business. For some reason the British public feels it has a personal stake in M&S and every whinge and every mistake becomes a headline matter.

A minor glitch on a newly installed website, a queue for fresh turkeys at Christmas and the elasticity of Jeremy Paxman’s knickers are all portrayed as major events. The comings and goings of senior staff (doesn’t this happen in all organisations) is portrayed as a dysfunction.

One would bet that staff longevity and loyalty easily outpaces that at HM Treasury and many of its rivals on the high Street.

Bolland’s legacy will be the investment in brighter stores, the creation of a fast-growing website, the return to the international stage, the cost improvement achieved by modern warehousing and logistics and investment in technology.

The expansion of upmarket food sales, in a grocery market decimated by cheap competition, is also a considerable achievement.

So where did it go wrong? As the market leader in womenswear, M&S has always been there to shoot at.

Next successfully grew profits beyond M&S by embracing online earlier, but is itself finding conditions more difficult.

What Bolland has had to deal with is the rise of foreign newcomers, including Zara’s Spanish owner Inditex, Sweden’s h&M, Ireland’s Primark, the US’s Gap and Banana Republic and so on. Zara is ten times the size of M&S and h&M is worth £35bn, giving them buying power and international spread far beyond anything M&S can muster.

That is why heading back into France and the rest of the world is so critical in determining the future.

As for the core business in the UK, there is much to build on.

Almost all stores in the country are profitable, with weaker branches, such as Redcar, having been weeded out. Rowe’s plan i s to bring to clothing the same fleetness of foot that the company has brought to fresh food, where the M&S advantage is emptying the shelves every evening rather than bringing stuff out of the freezer.

here there are lessons to learn from Sir Philip Green and Topshop. Instead of a few rigid seasons, a much more flexible approach is required with quicker turnover of new stock, especially heavily promoted items that are wanted as much in Rochdale and horsham as in Marble Arch and Westfield.

If that can be done then the 5.8pc drop in general merchandise sales which may have cost Bolland extra time at the helm could potentially be stemmed.

even Simon Wolfson at Next couldn’t control the weather.

The Bolland legacy is mixed but by no means dire. The opportunities in europe, in food and in rethinking clothing are there, and the support of the company’s army of small shareholders rarely wavers.

Wrong call

QUITE why Chancellor George Osborne chose to blurt out on the BBC’s Today show that the admirable Tracey McDermott is no longer a candidate to head the Financial Conduct Authority is unclear.

But it was a bit disrespectful since McDermott had not yet publicly announced her decision, which came in a statement from the FCA a few hours later.

As recently as late November, Ms McDermott was still in the interview process and keen on moving up to the top job. The race for that is now open, with the Bank of england’s Andy haldane, elizabeth Corley of Allianz and deputy Bank of england governor Minouche Shafik among those mentioned.

A radical idea from some City participants, fed up with duplicate conversations with the Prudential Regulatory Authority and the FCA, is that the latter be brought directly under the control of Andrew Bailey and Mark Carney at the Bank.

Fascinating but unlikely.

Secret costs

IT IS not much use Poundland, now incorporating 99p Stores, moaning about a dire festive season because consumers preferred online shopping.

Firms enjoy boasting about the surge of online sales but more often than not forget to mention the high costs of selecting, sorting and delivering those sales.

Grocery pioneer Ocado charges between £2.99 and £6.99 for its deliveries. That’s nearly a full basket at Poundland.