Marks and Spencer 2003 Annual Report Download - page 3

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One question you may be asking is whether the turnaround at Marks & Spencer has been completed. My response
will always be that we will never claim to have ‘made it’. We are on a journey of continuous improvement and our
aspiration is always to do better.
Nevertheless, over the last year we have rebuilt the foundations on which this Group can continue to grow and
prosper. Last year I set out the strategies we intended to pursue – to regain our leadership in clothing and special
food; to build on our unique customer relationships with new products and services; to shape our store locations,
formats and products to the needs of our customers; and to reassert our position as a leading, socially responsible
business. These remain in place and the story of the year is one of steady progress on each front.
Of course, no strategy can succeed without the right structure and the right team. Having combined the roles of
Chairman and Chief Executive during our turnaround phase, we concluded last year that the time had come to
change our leadership structure and to split the roles. I, therefore, reverted to my original role of Chairman while
Roger Holmes stepped into the position of Chief Executive. Also this year, we reinforced an already powerful team
by appointing Vittorio Radice to head our Home business. We move ahead with a structure and a team that we
know is right for the business.
Key to regaining market share and to increasing profitability has been a focus on improving both the appeal and
value of our products, thereby making aspirational quality more accessible to our customers. For continuing
operations, over the year, Retail sales were up by 6.6%, Group operating profit before exceptional items was up
by 21.1% and adjusted earnings per share were up by 39.6%. The final dividend payment will be 6.5p per share,
up 12.1%, giving a full year payment of 10.5p per share. It is rewarding to see the contribution of our 67,000
people towards achieving these results, as well as their awareness of the opportunities for further improvement that
lie ahead and their willingness to tackle them.
Now that we have restored the fundamentals and won back our customers’ trust, we see opportunities to meet their
existing needs in new ways and also attract new customers. We have moved ahead to make our products available
to more customers with the roll-out of our Simply Food format, the new developments in Home including the
opening of our first stand-alone store next spring and proceeding to the next stage of the programme prior to the
national launch of our credit and loyalty card in Financial Services. These opportunities confirm our view that we
can widen the Marks & Spencer offering and create new sources of growth.
Every product and service we offer is testimony to our aim to be a leading socially responsible company, and we
were pleased to be ranked among the top 24 companies in Business in the Community’s first Corporate Responsibility
Index. You can read about our progress in our first-ever review of corporate social responsibility – now available on
our website.
In summary, we have reached a new basis from which we can build our business. We know the competitive
environment is not going to get any easier, but we can see plenty of opportunities for further growth. Our challenge,
quite simply, is to keep improving every aspect of our business every day of the year and through every one of our
products.
Luc Vandevelde
Chairman
A journey of continuous
improvement
Luc Vandevelde Chairman
Chairman’s message