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Marks and Spencer Group plc Annual report and financial statements 2010 Directors’ report 22
What we sell
Kidswear
Fashionability
We know from speaking to our customers
that the ‘fashionability’ of kidswear is
increasingly important to them. To keep our
ranges firmly on trend, we’ve worked closely
with our regional office in Turkey to help us
reduce our lead times. As a result, the entire
process of designing a product, making it
and delivering it to store can take as little as
eight weeks.
Destination shopping
Busy parents want to quickly browse and
buy and with this in mind, our Home division
launched ‘Kids at Home’ in November 2009
in 37 stores. ‘Kids at Home’ displays our
clothing, toys and kids interior collections in
a lifestyle setting to make it easier for parents
to shop. Further to this, Kidswear
collaborated with the
Home division to launch
‘My Unusual Friends’ – a
nursery and babywear
range designed by
children’s illustrator and
author of Humphrey’s
Corner, Sally Hunter.
Our research has told us that many
parents like to shop at home online, once
their children have gone to bed. As a result,
we are placing more emphasis on developing
our multi-channel kidswear offer and are
increasing sales as a result.
Looking ahead
We remain committed to becoming the
number one destination for kidswear in
the UK. We will do this by building on our
achievements so far continuing to refresh
our ranges and providing excellent choice,
fashion and value for money.
Brand clarity
Parents come to M&S for all the landmark
stages – for newborn clothing and school
uniforms, partywear and teenage outfits.
Our kidswear must deliver the right products
for all these phases, as well as the practical,
everyday clothing kids need, like our essentials,
nightwear and footwear.
Over the last 12 months we have
worked to make our kidswear brands easier
for parents to identify and more closely
aligned to our adult clothing ranges.
Autograph Stylish pieces for both boys
and girls. This range provides, high quality,
contemporary style that is perfect for
special occasions.
Indigo Collection In January we launched
the Indigo Collection brand across boys and
girlswear, providing parents with mix and
match casualwear that offers easy, everyday
outfit solutions.
Girls Limited Like our adult Limited
Collection, this is a trend-led range with an
emphasis on providing accessible fashion.
Value and quality
Our focus remains fixed on delivering the
best quality, hardwearing clothes for
children, at great value. As always at M&S,
value is never at the expense of quality and
our schoolwear range is a good example of
this. The starting price point for an entire
school uniform remains at £6.50 and this
includes a 100% cotton jumper, a polo shirt
and a crease resistant skirt or pair of non-
iron trousers.
Parents come to M&S above the
competition for school uniform, so there is
a natural opportunity to be the first choice
for kids’ essentials like underwear, socks
and nightwear too. This year we have
focused on growing our market position
in this area, with sales up 16.9%.
It has been another strong year for kidswear and we have grown market share
to 6.1% by value, up 0.7% and to 6.3% by volume. We are number four in the
kidswear market and have retained our number one spot for schoolwear,
against stiff competition from the supermarkets. We are committed to
reclaiming our position as the first choice store for parents in search of quality,
on-trend, great value kidswear.
INNOVATION
Above: Living the Dream In April 2010 we
launched our Living the Dream boyswear range,
in association with the Vodaphone McLaren
Mercedes Formula 1 team and World Champions
Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.
Kidswear value market share
6.1%
+0.7% pts
Kidswear volume market share
6.3%
+0.4% pts
Our top-to-toe recycled school
uniform was a high street first,
which used polyester made
from recycled plastic bottles
in the blazer, shirt, skirt and
trousers. Our E-leather shoes
are made from leather waste
that would usually end up
in landfill.
PLAN A: ECO SCHOOL UNIFORM
For more information about Plan A see
p36 or visit marksandspencer.com/plana