Marks and Spencer 2009 Annual Report Download - page 36

32 Marks and Spencer Group plc Annual report and financial statements 2009 Directors’ report
Food: Over the last year we have concentrated on what M&S
does best: offering our customers the very best quality food
at outstanding value. Although sales for the year were level at
£4.25bn, the changes we have made to increase innovation,
improve our on-shelf availability, and reduce our prices, whilst
maintaining outstanding quality, are beginning to bear fruit and
should continue to deliver improvements in the year ahead.
M&S has always been committed to offering
the freshest, best quality food, with a
particular focus on healthy eating, innovation
and ethical sourcing. These values remain
at the core of our business. However, we
recognised that against a background of
unprecedented economic conditions on
the High Street, we needed to give our
customers more of the products they
want, at better value.
The foundations we are putting in place in
our Food business will stand the test of time.
While economic conditions may dictate some
tactical decisions, they will be consistent with
our long-term strategy. That is why we are
rebuilding M&S Food using the founding
principles of our business: Quality, Value,
Service, Innovation and Trust.
Quality
M&S has always been synonymous with the
highest quality food. It is our core point of
difference in the marketplace. Customers
continue to recognise this. For example in a
recent Watchdog survey of more than 36,000
people, M&S came out top for quality food,
beating all other supermarkets.
During the year we launched ‘Top Marks’
as a way of highlighting
to customers those products
that have been independently
judged as being the best in
the market. ‘Top Marks’ draw
attention to products that have
won awards, received positive
press reviews, or have been independently
quality tested.
Our customers know that all the food they
buy from us is quality assured. But we are
constantly finding new ways to improve
our offer. All of our fresh beef, pork, chicken,
turkey and salmon are already sourced in
the UK and this year we extended our sourcing
so that it is local to individual M&S stores.
For example we have just begun regional
sourcing of chicken for Scottish stores.
This strategy runs through the very heart
of a Food business that is founded on ethical
sourcing, the highest standards of products
and raw materials, provenance of its
ingredients and supports British farmers.
Our wine range is widely recognised as
having improved significantly over the last
few years; work recognised in 2008 at the
most important and coveted industry awards.
M&S won both ‘Supermarket of the Year’ and
‘Wine Merchant of the Year’ at the International
Wine Challenge, and was voted ‘Supermarket
of the Year’ by Decanter Wine Magazine.
Value
In a challenging market, outstanding value is
a fundamental requirement for our customers.
We are listening and responding.
During the course of the year we
undertook a number of major pricing
initiatives as the first and most obvious
response to the economic climate. ‘Wise
Buys’, ‘Family Favourites for £4’ and the
‘Dine in for two for £10’ promotions work
in combination to offer our customers the
chance to buy great food on a regular basis,
and at outstanding value.
125 YEARS OF INNOVATION
Left: Start from scratch The launch of Cook Asian
1234 bridges the gap between scratch cooking and
prepared meals. Customers can rustle up a fresh
healthy meal for two for just £6.99, using four core
products with a potential of 110 combinations.
UK Food sales
£4.25bn
Food value market share
3.9%
-0.4% pts
John Dixon Director of Food
Core UK business
continued
125 YEARS OF` VALUE
Above: Pure and simple Our new Simply range of
sandwiches launched in February with the 75p
Jam Sandwich.