Marks and Spencer 2009 Annual Report Download - page 44

40 Marks and Spencer Group plc Annual report and financial statements 2009 Directors’ report
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Property and store environment: We remain committed
to our plan to invest in our store portfolio through modernising
and expanding existing stores, while also extending the brand
into new markets. We had an active year in 2008/09 but as
with other areas of the core UK business, we have reduced
our capital expenditure. In the short-term, we are focused on
delivering additional space and modernising key stores while
ensuring our future pipeline remains strong.
Our property and store plan is to:
Expand and modernise our city centre stores;
Continue to extend our existing out-of-town
stores while opening new stores where
appropriate;
Continue to improve our presence
in retail parks;
Invest in our High Street stores; and
Build on the success of Simply Food.
We have achieved a great deal over the last
12 months, opening 75 new stores including
two new flagship stores in Colliers Wood and
Westfield. We also remodelled a further 24
stores bringing 80% of the portfolio into the
modernised format. We continue to build on
the significant investment we made in our
property portfolio over the last three years
to ensure our stores are in the best shape
possible for the future.
We have revised down capital expenditure
in property for 2009/10. Although we will
continue to operate across the five areas of
the plan, we will be giving stronger emphasis
to extending larger stores and opening new
stores in retail parks.
In 2008/09 we closed 26 stores, 24 of
which were Simply Food stores that were
either too small to act as a sufficient pull for
footfall, or in markets too small to sustain
them. We took these decisions in order to
continue to manage costs tightly and focus
our investments on sites that better suit our
customers’ requirements.
Expanding and modernising our
city centre stores
Modern stores run more efficiently, but they
also ensure customers enjoy their shopping
experience. They are designed to be bright
and contemporary, with easy to shop food
halls, efficient systems and a range of
hospitality options.
As one of the anchor stores at Westfield in
London, we went to great lengths to design
a high specification store, fitting for one of
Europe’s biggest retail developments this
decade. The store is designed to offer M&S
customers an unrivalled shopping experience
with a boutique style layout of our clothing
brands, improved navigation, and a full
complement of hospitality options including a
new M&S Café format. As ever, attention was
also given to green features such as solar
panel lighting and energy saving systems for
refrigeration and heating, in line with Plan A.
We are now able to take much of this
specification and incorporate it in our
modernisations across the country, for
instance in Liverpool and Leeds which will
be remodelled in the coming year.
How are we strengthening
our UK property portfolio?
Total space (14.9m sq ft)
+5.6%
Total stores
668
New stores
75
125 YEARS OF INNOVATION
Above: At home with M&S At 35,000 sq ft, our
new home store in Cardiff Capital includes a 6,000
sq ft food hall – so customers can buy the fridge,
and the groceries to fill it. We will open three new
home stores in Tunbridge Wells, Aberdeen and
Cheltenham.