M&S tempts shoppers with home comforts

MARKS & Spencer has drawn up plans to take a £150 million slice of the £14billion homeware market by tempting shoppers at its food halls to buy towels, crockery or duvets.

Executives have identified the home division as a ‘key opportunity’ for growth and will launch an advertising campaign next month.

The plan is being driven by Heidi Woodhouse, who joined 18 months ago from Dixons Carphone to take charge of the homeware division.

The campaign will use the shop’s ‘Remarksable’ value slogan to highlight low prices across its homeware ranges, which have been introduced over the past year.

They include four white mugs for £5, a three-piece aluminium nonstick pan set for £20, and what it describes as ‘spa-like luxury’ heavyweight Egyptian cotton towels for between £4 and £27.50.

Woodhouse said it was ‘an important growth opportunity’, adding: ‘The pandemic has changed how millions of customers feel about the space they call home. Our customers trust us for the food and clothing products that matter most so we want to highlight to them the value of our home products.’

M&S’s UK sales rose by 8.9 per cent in the last 13 weeks of 2021, compared with pre-pandemic levels two years ago. But clothing and home sales rose just 3.2 per cent, while food sales rose 12.4 per cent.

The shares have slipped 8.5 per cent so far in 2022 but have risen by 54 per cent in the past 12 months.

Chief executive Steve Rowe said Christmas was ‘strong’ and he was confident the chain would meet profit expectations for the year.