Marks and Spencer 2005 Annual Report Download - page 30

28 MARKS AND SPENCER GROUP PLC
Directors’ report continued
retired as executive directors on 9 November 2004. Mark McKeon
was appointed as executive director on 5 April 2004 and later
retired from that position on 9 November 2004. Brian Baldock
and Dame Stella Rimington retired as non-executive directors
on 14 July 2004 and Barbara Cassani retired as non-executive
director on 30 April 2004.
The beneficial interests of the directors and connected persons in the
shares of the Company and its subsidiaries are given on page 26.
Employee involvement
We have maintained our commitment to employee involvement
throughout the business.
Employees are kept well informed of the performance and
objectives of the Group through personal briefings, regular
meetings and e-mail. These are supplemented by our employee
publication, On Your Marks, and video presentations. Business
Involvement Groups in stores, distribution centres and head office
represent employees in two-way communication and are involved
in the delivery of change and driving business improvement.
The tenth meeting of the European Council took place last
September. This council provides an additional forum for
communicating with employee representatives from the countries
in the European Community.
Directors and senior management regularly visit stores and
discuss, with employees, matters of current interest and concern
to the business.
We continue to support employee share ownership through
long-established employee share schemes, membership of which
is service-related, details of which are given on pages 40 to 41.
Equal opportunities
The Group is committed to an active Equal Opportunities
Policy from recruitment and selection, through training and
development, appraisal and promotion to retirement.
It is our policy to promote an environment free from discrimination,
harassment and victimisation, where everyone will receive equal
treatment regardless of gender, colour, ethnic or national origin,
disability, age, marital status, sexual orientation or religion. All
decisions relating to employment practices will be objective, free
from bias and based solely upon work criteria and individual merit.
The Group is responsive to the needs of its employees, customers
and the community at large and we are an organisation that
endeavours to use everyone’s talents and abilities to the full.
Employees with disabilities
It is our policy that people with disabilities should have full and fair
consideration for all vacancies. During the year, we continued to
use the Government’s ‘two tick’ disability symbol to demonstrate
our commitment to interviewing those people with disabilities who
fulfil the minimum criteria, and endeavouring to retain employees in
the workforce if they become disabled during employment. We will
actively retrain and adjust their environment where possible to
allow them to maximise their potential.
We continue to work with external organisations to provide
workplace opportunities on the ‘Workstep Programme’.
Creditor payment policy
For all trade creditors, it is the Group’s policy to:
•agree the terms of payment at the start of business with
that supplier;
•ensure that suppliers are aware of the terms of payment; and
•pay in accordance with its contractual and other legal obligations.
The main trading company, Marks and Spencer plc, has a policy
concerning the payment of trade creditors as follows:
•general merchandise is automatically paid for 11 working days
from the end of the week of delivery;
•food is paid for 13 working days from the end of the week of
delivery (based on the timely receipt of an accurate invoice); and
•distribution suppliers are paid monthly, for costs incurred
in that month, based on estimates, and payments are adjusted
quarterly to reflect any variations to estimate.
Trade creditor days for Marks and Spencer plc for the year ended
2 April 2005 were 12.0 days, or 8.0 working days (last year 12.3
days, or 8.3 working days), based on the ratio of company trade
creditors at the end of the year to the amounts invoiced during the
year by trade creditors.
Market value of properties
The directors are of the opinion that market value of the Group’s
properties at 2 April 2005 exceeded the net book value by
approximately £1.3bn.
Charitable and political donations
During the year, the Group made charitable donations to
support the community of £9.8m (last year £7.2m). These
principally consisted of cash donations of £3.0m (last year £5.1m)
which includes the cost of our flagship community programme
Marks & Start, Breakthrough Breast Cancer and other charitable
donations, £2.0m (last year £1.2m) of employee time principally for
the Marks & Start programme and local community projects, and
stock donations of £4.3m (last year £0.4m) to a variety of charities
including Shelter, Fareshare, Birth Defects Foundation as well as to
the local community.
At the Annual General Meeting in July 2002, shareholders
authorised the Company, Marks and Spencer plc and Marks and
Spencer Financial Services plc to make donations to EU political
organisations and to incur EU political expenditure, under the
provisions of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act
2000, of up to £100,000 in aggregate for each company in each
year until 10 July 2006.
It is our policy not to make donations to political parties and
accordingly no political payments were made. However, we have
a long tradition of supporting the community and the Group may
support individuals in a number of ways for civic duties, which we
shall continue to do.
Auditors
Resolutions to reappoint PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as
auditors of the Company and to authorise the Audit Committee
to determine their remuneration will be proposed at the Annual
General Meeting.
Annual General Meeting
The Notice of the Annual General Meeting to be held on 13 July
2005 is given, together with explanatory notes, in the booklet
which accompanies this report.
By order of the Board
Graham Oakley, Group Secretary
London
23 May 2005