Marks And Spencer Share Discussion Threads

[philanderer] 23/5/2018 23:21

The M&S fightback starts here: Brutally frank chairman lays bare catalogue of failings at his own stores



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[philanderer] 23/5/2018 17:31

Only -8p for 2018 now ;-)

[knowing] 23/5/2018 15:56

So thanks to the US we have another trading opportunity today

[knowing] 23/5/2018 12:45

Would be nice to see a test of todays high

[eggbaconandbubble] 23/5/2018 12:25

No shorts! That's a pity I was going to my local store to buy a pair for the hols!

[mjb2] 23/5/2018 12:08

freedom97 - I agree. They already have a suggestion scheme in operation but sadly none seem to be taken up. I must point out that the problems I highlighted earlier have only come about in recent years (except for chief and Indians). M&S are trying to play catch up with other high street stores and didn't have the IT structure in place early enough and are now juggling with many balls at once. I get the impression that ideas/orders are passed down from head office and many - if not all stores- are autonomous. The managers of these stores then interpret the orders from above in their own fashion.

Before I retired, I used to work for one of the major oil companies in Britain and in the early nineties we suffered from the same problems. The CEO and board decided to join in the craze for Investor in People and such schemes and this was passed down to the various structures in the company. The managers of these structures didn't get rid of existing working practice, just tagged on the new schemes. Result, same amount of product with just more effort.

All said and done, M&S is the major part of my portfolio!!

[qantas] 23/5/2018 11:41

We have now passed thru resistance 297 next levels are 313 324 354

- Strong cash generation even after restructuring costs reduced net debt by GBP107.2m, enabling the maintenance of a full year dividend, unchanged at 18.7p.


Please do your own research.

[essentialinvestor] 23/5/2018 11:40

In fairness results were better than some expected,
so a stronger opening understandable.

[knowing] 23/5/2018 11:24

They do say that the first spike on news is the one to watch as that usually determines the direction.

[qantas] 23/5/2018 11:14

So sad poor old shorts doomed to failure how did they get it so wrong OCDO NXT DEB MKS

How to make money study the shorts.



Please do your own research...

[freedom97] 23/5/2018 10:50

mjb2, no good Mrs MJB2 complaining/moaning to you, that will not improve things, instead ask her to write a letter to the CEO with her suggestions of how to improve things.

[qantas] 23/5/2018 10:45

In corporate news, Marks & Spencer was the standout gainer as its proposed revamp of the business trumped a better-than-expected 5.4% fall in annual profits as margins at the retailer's food business were squeezed by the rising cost of ingredients. After including a huge £514m of exceptional costs, mostly related to a £321m provision for the cost of the accelerated store closure programme announced earlier in the week, reported pre-tax profits slumped by 62% to £66m.

Please do your own research..

[essentialinvestor] 23/5/2018 10:39

mijb, might explain why I keep seeing the same food lines reduced
any evening at my local MKS.


Amazon bid their best hope imv, although it would be sad to see.

[loganair] 23/5/2018 10:16

What I still really like about M&S clothing is how they still give the extra 1/2 an inch here and 1/2 and inch extra there where it really matters and they still sell a good amount of 100% cotton is why I still buy all my underwear and pajamas from M&S.

M&S food is very expensive, much more than Waitrose, the only time I buy any food from M&S are their biscuits when they go on offer.

Another major area where M&S are missing out is that on-line one can order and send anywhere in Europe except Spain. If living in Spain can only order from M&S Spanish site which has a far smaller range then their UK online site.

[mjb2] 23/5/2018 10:15

Mrs MJB2 works at our local M&S but behind the scenes in stock room. She tells me that the ordering system is in complete chaos with instructions on how to return stock items to central warehouse changing week by week with sometimes the same items coming back to the store on a regular basis. Not only that, the hand held scanning system they use to count stock on the shop floor etc is not fit for purpose as it simply does not recognise many items. This also extends to food with items that would fly off the shelves just not being delivered because a central ordering system is being used and the computer there dictates what is sent to which shops.

Another complaint is that M&S is still living in the past with the old "many chiefs but not many Indians", with sometimes as many as three supervisors over four manual workers, resulting in conflicting aims.

Mrs MJB2 is just waiting for her pension....

[ignoble] 23/5/2018 09:48

Very good point Logan
They never were and never will be a fashion retailer nor should they be
Being of an age , my gripe with Marks over the years is that their quality and control thereof , is not what it was once.
Having said that , mens tailoring is still up there and the big thing is that if you need a suit you can buy any size jacket and any size trouser.
Makes getting a half decent fit a lot easier.

[essentialinvestor] 23/5/2018 09:22

The MKS share price peaked 3 year ago almost to the day, around double current levels.

[qantas] 23/5/2018 09:18

How did the shorters get is so wrong not a normal short but a M&S short.

Please do your own research.

[loganair] 23/5/2018 09:17

For some unknown reason in the early 1990's some bright spark at M&S decided that M&S needed to become a fashion retailer, becoming 1 of many fashion retailers instead of being in their own clothing market place.

[philanderer] 23/5/2018 09:10

Target of 30% online for clothing sales.

[loganair] 23/5/2018 09:07

Getting into Fashion is where it seems to me M&S went wrong in the early 1990's. They need to return to their core customer base by offering style rather than this years trendy fashion which so many other retailers do far better than M&S does.

[philanderer] 23/5/2018 09:02

the usual reiterations ;-)

23rd may Peel Hunt buy
23rd may Liberum sell

[philanderer] 23/5/2018 08:48

Final dividend unchanged at 11.9p giving total of 18.7p which at the present shareprice gives a 6.2% yield.


I thought Steve Rowe did a more than ok job this morning on the ITV breakfast show.

[johnny1982] 23/5/2018 08:32

Anyone know the divi yield/ payout?