Marks and Spencer 2010 Annual Report Download - page 43

Operating & financial review 
Governance p50 
Financial statements p78 
39To find out more, visit marksandspencer.com/annualreport2010
Brand & marketplace p20 
Performance & KPIs p14 
Overview p01 
Study into long-term causes of the disease.
We’ve also supported the Prostate Cancer
charity for four years, helping to raise nearly
£200,000 in 2009/10 to part-fund a UK-
wide helpline.
New developments with our suppliers
include our new commitment to become the
first major retailer to actively tackle and bring
clarity to the ‘living’ wage debate. We will do
this by determining and agreeing a fair, living
wage before implementing a process to
ensure our clothing suppliers pay this wage
to their workers in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka
and India.
In Clothing and Homeware, we have
pledged to work with our suppliers to
provide training and education programmes
that will include basic healthcare and
workers’ rights, for 500,000 workers in
their factories. Meanwhile in Food, we are
encouraging 10,000 farmers who supply
our fresh produce to join our sustainable
agriculture programme.
Health and wellbeing
Promoting active, healthier lifestyles for our
customers and employees has always been
important to us. This year one of our major
new launches was our Simply Fuller Longer
range, developed in collaboration with the
Aberdeen University, to help people eat less
by feeling full for longer. Healthier food now
makes up 38% of M&S Food ranges.
Since we launched Plan A in 2007 we’ve
removed artificial colours and flavouring from
all M&S food and soft drinks and met 91%
of the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) 2010
salt reduction targets.
We use traffic light nutritional food
labelling alongside Guideline Daily Amounts
on all FSA recommended categories of food.
In 2009/10 we also introduced the use of
calorie labelling on price tickets in our cafés.
To give customers and employees the
information they need to make healthier
choices we’ve improved our online services.
These include a ‘healthy lifestyle’ website
and a monthly health bulletin for customers,
along with a Your Wellbeing website and
newsletter for employees.
Looking ahead
Despite the recession, we know that
environmental and social issues remain
important to our customers. Plan A is
already delivering considerable benefits and
we have made significant progress against
our original commitments. Our goal to
become the world’s most sustainable major
retailer by 2015 is an ambitious one. Our
extended Plan A will reach further and move
us faster – covering every part of our
business and reaching out to forests,
farms, factories, lorries, warehouses
and into our customers’ and
employees’ homes. We believe
sustainability is a key ingredient of
business success and that Plan A
will continue to make us more
efficient, develop new markets
and build customer loyalty.
It remains the right thing to do
both morally and commercially.
the wood we use in our products (and 90%
of wood products used in construction and
store fit-outs) are Forest Stewardship Council
certified, recycled or from sources that
otherwise protect forests and communities.
Under our new phase of Plan A we are
committed to becoming the first major retailer
to ensure traceability of all the key raw materials
used in our clothing and home products
including cotton, wool, polyester, nylon,
leather and wood. We will also increase the
amount of cotton we source from sustainable
sources to 25% by 2015 and 50% by 2020.
In Food our aim is to become the first major
retailer to ensure that the five key raw materials
we use – palm oil, soya, coca, beef, coffee –
come from sustainable sources that do not
contribute to deforestation.
Fair partner
One of the things that sets us apart from other
retailers is the way we work with our suppliers.
This year we’ve helped our suppliers to set
up 10 Ethical Model Factories to demonstrate
how good employment practices can result
in a more productive workforce and allow for
higher wages. We provided over 80,000
hours of supplier training (four times more
than last year) and held best practice
conferences around the world.
2009/10 was the sixth year of our Marks
& Start work experience programme –
providing work experience to some 700
participants who otherwise would face
barriers to employment, with 40% of them
subsequently finding jobs.
We’ve helped our customers and
employees raise £2.1m for Breakthrough
Breast Cancer during 2009, with £13.1m
raised for the charity over the past nine
years. This figure, 15% of Breakthrough
Breast Cancer’s 2009/10 funding, is used
to part fund the Breakthrough Generations
INNOVATION
Left: PET wine bottles We became the first retailer
to convert its entire range of mini (25cl) still wine
bottles to PET, a material traditionally used in-flight
catering where turnover is very fast. Working in
partnership with Paul Sapin and Roger Harris Wines,
we developed a new oxygen barrier technology,
guaranteed to keep wine fresh for at least 12 months.
88% lighter than glass bottles, PET bottles require
less energy to manufacture and reduce the carbon
footprint in transport and distribution.
TRUST
Above: Our Milk Pledge Plus guarantees the
milk prices paid to suppliers reflects the retail
price and now includes a bonus payment for high
animal welfare standards. Monitored by Bristol vet
school (part of Bristol University), the scheme not
only provides farmers with greater security, but
incentivises them to maintain a healthy herd, so
customers can enjoy our milk safe in the knowledge
it comes from farms with the highest standards.