Marks and Spencer 2007 Annual Report Download - page 16

essential items like everyday bras, single knickers and hosiery,
thanks to competitive pricing and excellent quality. Clear
segmentation and choice enabled us to increase our market
share, despite intense competition, from 24.3% to 26.1%,
nearly five times the share held by our nearest competitor.
Maintaining this dominant position will be the challenge this year.
In children’s clothing we reversed the weak performance of
recent years and made our first market share improvement for
six years, up from 4.2% to 4.5%, introducing better product
from baby right through to young teenage girls and boys. Our
first television advertising campaign for childrenswear boosted
sales, as did a new trial store layout. We are pleased with the
progress this year, but we know we have a lot more to do here,
both in terms of product and availability.
Our home department is in its second year of strong growth,
helped by good demand for furniture and a clearer pricing
stretching from 50p glass tumblers and £5 large glass vases
to our ‘Autograph’ extra large pure combed cotton bath towels
at £25. There’s potential to grow this business significantly.
In furniture, our priority is to improve our deliveries to provide
even better levels of service.
Value
As the UK’s largest clothing retailer, we buy on a vast scale.
This means we can give customers a broad spread of prices
to choose from without compromising on quality, innovation
or ethical trading.
We have been taking action on prices across clothing and
home for two years, with further progress made on improving
value across our ranges in 2006/07. Average prices fell by
around 3% over the year, while volumes increased by around
14%. Last year, items like women’s jogging trousers for £9.50,
one of our biggest selling lines; cosy, long fleece dressing
gowns at £17.50; our men’s £49.50 machine-washable suit;
and cooking sets from £9.50, set the pace on value.
But we need to keep providing customers with new, great
value products. In the year ahead, there will be more must-have
fashion items like leggings and printed jersey dresses in
womenswear, while in men’s we will continue to introduce
better opening prices on popular lines, as we have done with
our £5 polo-shirt. In lingerie and home, we’re extending the
choice of colours in key lines like the £6 bra and in basic towels
and bed linens. There’ll be more value items in childrenswear,
like our £2.50 girls’ t-shirts, as we continue our work to improve
our offer.
Choice
Our brands are helping us to introduce more clarity at higher
price brackets too. ‘Autograph’ – the brand we use across
womenswear, men’s, lingerie and home for contemporary
products at the top end of our price range – is a good example
VALUE
We offer customers a choice of high
quality products at prices that suit
them. For us, it’s a simple equation:
value = price x quality. We’re trying to
make the choices simpler. Take bed
linen. Customers can now choose our
opening price pillow cases at £2 each,
opt for our ‘Supima’ 100% soft cotton,
non-iron pillow cases at £4, or choose
‘Autograph’ Egyptian fine cotton ones
at £12 each.
AWARDS
We won a number of important
awards during the year. These
included being named Business
in the Community ‘Company of
the Year’ for the second time;
Best Fashion Retailer by the
RSPCA; and being given Grade A
status by Greenpeace for
sustainable wood sourcing. Both
Prima and Drapers voted us best
lingerie retailer.
FAIR PARTNER
We’ve increased our use of ‘Fairtrade’
cotton from India and Africa, buying
around a third of the world’s current
supply. In ‘Fairtrade’ Fortnight in March
we offered an outfit for all the family,
including socks, t-shirts and jeans.
Next year we will sell over 20 million
‘Fairtrade’ garments, equating to
around £100m of sales.
14 MARKS AND SPENCER GROUP PLC www.marksandspencer.com/annualreport2007