Marks And Spencer Share Discussion Threads

[johnwise] 21/5/2021 13:56

Marks & Spencer expected to slide to £43m profit after Covid closures

Profits are expected to fall at Marks & Spencer after the retail giant’s sales were strangled by pandemic store closures.

[freedom97] 21/5/2021 09:11

“Clothing sales soared by nearly three quarters as consumers took advantage of being able to visit physical stores...":

[xxxxxy] 21/5/2021 07:48

7:44amRetail sales jumpRetail sales volumes were 42.4pc higher in April 2021 than in April 2020, during the first national lockdown, the ONS reports.However it warns that "base effects" make this an inaccurate comparison, so prefers to measure it against February 2020, before the pandemic. "Total retail sales levels for both the amount spent and quantity bought were up 9.9pc and 10.6pc respectively compared with their pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic February 2020 levels," it says..... Daily Telegraph....

[netcurtains] 20/5/2021 19:54

So is Blackrock buying more of M&S?

[xxxxxy] 20/5/2021 13:02

Remainer hypocrisy on farming is a protectionist trapBoris Johnson should side with his Cabinet free traders to show he is serious about using Brexit freedoms to "level up" the UKRYAN BOURNE20 May 2021 • 12:32pmRyan BourneThe debate over the UK-Australia free trade agreement (FTA) has been both confusing and clarifying.Confusing, because keyboard warrior Remainers who used to say free trade with Polish farmers was good, quality-enhancing and holy, now apparently think free trade with Aussie farmers would be bad, quality-diminishing, and wicked. Clarifying, because in observing this convenient alliance between anti-Brexiteers and protectionist farming interests, Britain is getting a crash course in the messy politics of bilateral trade deals.Negotiating FTAs with tariffs as "bargaining chips" makes it easy to portray export freedoms as a boon to "our" producers and removing tariffs as harming them. UK press assessments of negotiations then get written up as a balance of competing domestic consumer and producer interests.Take the farming issue. Trade Secretary Liz Truss wants a zero-tariff, zero-quota agreement to bolster competition. Environment Secretary George Eustice and Michael Gove supposedly oppose this, wanting EU-style "tariff rate quotas" to protect British farmers' demand. These would allow a threshold amount of, say, Aussie beef to be imported tariff free, with taxes applied for any imports beyond this.The hyperbolic Minette Batters of the National Farmers' Union has framed the choice this way: we can have cheaper imported food from lower-quality Aussie ranchers and see "the end" of much British farming. Or we can use price-raising tariffs to maintain high-quality British family farms.All acknowledge her wild overstatement. But a bunch of Remainer trade lawyers have happily obliged her framing of a British consumers vs. producers trade-off that naïve Brexiteers would have missed.So let's be clear: all FTAs and the hysteria surrounding them bring miserable political compromises, but the idea there's some simple consumer-producer trade-off here is bad economics.British consumers would unambiguously benefit from freer food trade with Australia. Not because "cheap" beef or lamb will suddenly flood the UK.Australia has high standards and the NFU hasn't produced meaningful evidence that standards here raise production costs significantly. No, the real consumer welfare benefits from bilateral FTAs usually arise from a greater variety of products, improved quality, and more security of supply, rather than falling prices. So it would be with the Aussies.What about farmers? If the NFU is correct that a tariff-free FTA would end much British farming, this suggests current protection is extremely harmful to UK consumers, as they are priced away from products they prefer. If UK farmers really can't compete on price with food produced 10,000 miles away, then tariffs are a very regressive means of covering up awful inefficiency. The poorest households, after all, dedicate 14pc of their spending to food, against just 10pc for the richest.Yet framing this as cheap meat vs. the future of British farming is obviously a red herring. The Aussie government admits its agricultural exporters are maxed out with Asian demand, making vast flows to the UK "unlikely." The UK Government thinks this agreement will help ascension to the broader Trans Pacific Partnership, opening up the potentially huge growing meat-hungry Asian middle-class market to UK farmers.But there's a more general point here. Eliminating tariffs with Australia would obviously open British farms producing certain products to direct competition. Yet that's not the same as saying the FTA's provisions would harm UK producers overall. Freer trade facilitates cheaper inputs to industries like farms. More importantly, competition weeds out inefficiency, freeing up resources for more productive ventures.Indeed, the main long-term benefit of freer trade is not cheap imported stuff, but more specialisation. Openness forces producers to adopt new techniques, invest to serve new markets, use land productively, carve out niches, or downsize. This enhances overall production, rather than diminishing it.That's why it's so depressing to hear the NFU run down British farming by implying it just couldn't cope without the coddling. The experience of Scottish whisky and malt barley shows British industries can succeed on quality. Exciting things are happening in agritech and high-tech greenhouses. Even in extremis, farmers are sitting on gold mines if governments reformed planning laws to use land in new ways.New Zealand had a very large, protected agricultural sector in the 1970s. In the 1980s it shed government protection, not via gradually bilateral deals, but through a rapid five-year unilateral liberalisation.It was disruptive. The sheep stock halved and beef and lamb farm numbers fell by a third. But the country reoriented quickly under global prices. Larger herd sizes and increased lambing rates bolstered productivity. Venison and wine took off and fruit production boomed. The country now has a productive, diverse agricultural sector. Few Kiwis clamour for protection.British politicians shirked such unilateral liberalisation post-Brexit, despite decades of EU subsidies, tariffs, and other barriers for agriculture. But the lesson holds: protectionism, by distorting price signals, breeds inefficiency. When that plaster is removed, as it always eventually is, the pain is harsher the longer the cosseting.This is missed in the narrow, static consumer vs. producer framing we've heard, egged on by Remainers desperate to create a "betrayal of farmers" narrative. Tariffs insulate certain farms at consumers' expense, yes. But protectionism also makes the economy less productive. It is the worst example of industrial policy, knowingly tilting the deck towards sectors expected to struggle."Ceding" such protection by "granting tariff-free access" to other countries is not a sign of weakness, as Michael Gove supposedly believes. It would actually be a vote of confidence in the robust dynamism of the UK's market economy.The Prime Minister regularly laments the UK's poor productivity performance and says he wants to "level up" the country. Siding with his Cabinet free traders would be a healthy signal he was serious about using the Brexit freedoms to do something about it..... Daily Telegraph

[boystown] 20/5/2021 10:52

Any guesses as to the divi here in c.two years' time?

[johnwise] 19/5/2021 12:53

Marks & Spencer is reshaping its management team as it moves to the next phase in its transformation programme.

[johnwise] 19/5/2021 12:52

Marks & Spencer is reshaping its management team as it moves to the next phase in its transformation programme.

[xxxxxy] 19/5/2021 08:04

Back the Australian trade dealMAY 19, 2021 13 COMMENTSThe Uk has now rolled over the EU deals with other countries as promised in the referendum. The draft Australian Free Trade Agreement could be the first of the new UK negotiated deals, which will go much further than the EU went in opening up opportunities for more trade and business activity. The Australian one will go some way to restore the losses we experienced with Australia thanks to EU protectionism against them. Australia is a key ally and partner, a fellow member of the 5 Eyes Group and a willing collaborator. For example, Australia is buying the rights and support to build  9 Type 26 UK designed  frigates.The Agreement will sweep away tariffs and quotas, and open up services. It will provide great opportunities for the UK dairy industry to sell more UK cheeses, the whisky industry to sell more drink and the  car industry to sell more vehicles. UK consumers will have access to some great Australian products at cheaper prices, with a likely rise in interest in Australian wines as one of the  consumer wins.Some now say we need to offer protection to our beef and sheep meat sectors through tariff quotas to limit the amount of product Australia can sell us at better prices. To argue in  this way is to seek to wreck the agreement. Australia has rightly  not signed Free Trade Agreements with any country whilst accepting tariff rate quotas. The people who think the UK needs this protection from food produced on the other side of the world did not of course offer any such protection from EU food products, where we have tariff and quota free food trade and plenty of EU imports. It is difficult to believe our beef and sheep meat sectors will lose out to Australia given the distances involved and the relative costs. Australia has  high standards of animal welfare and husbandry. UK beef and sheep meat are quality products with plenty of scope for us to export more and to sell more at home.We owe it to ourselves and to Australia to do this deal. When we joined the EEC we turned our backs on Australia and other Commonwealth allies, placing heavy barriers in the way of their exports to us to give a big advantage to European product. Australia is a willing friend keen to promote our joint interests by freer trade. Doing a deal with Australia also gets us closer and sooner to a deal with CPTPP, the Pacific partnership countries. That is another large prize, a free trade deal with the fastest growing part of the world.... John Redwood

[philanderer] 19/5/2021 00:51

M&S embraces the future: Covid has taught the High Street stalwart the need for online transformation, says ALEX BRUMMER

[johnwise] 19/5/2021 00:25

M&S embraces the future: Covid has taught the High Street stalwart the need for online transformation, says ALEX BRUMMER

Ahead of its annual results next week M&S could claim to be a recovery play. The shares have almost doubled in value after hitting a year-low last October and, with a market value of just over £3billion, could be knocking on the door of a return to the FTSE 100 in the next year.

[xxxxxy] 18/5/2021 07:22

Sort out the GB/Northern Ireland tradeMAY 18, 2021 8 COMMENTSIt is wrong that many GB businesses now find they cannot send their goods to willing buyers in Northern Ireland without a large amount of extra paperwork or even EU inspired bans. Both sides to the UK/EU Agreement opposed a hard  border on the island of Ireland. Both wished to protect the EU single market and the UK internal market, and allow NI easy access to both. That is what the Protocol says.The EU has decided to use the Protocol to create a hard border in Northern Ireland against Great Britain. This border is not in the Irish Sea but is enforced against containers, vans and trucks on arrival in Northern Ireland. The EU seems to think a North-south border has to be open but an east=west  border needs to be tightly controlled by them. They should try reading the Good Friday Agreement which is about looking after the interests of both the Protstant and the Catholic communities in Northern Ireland. This heavy handed  approach by the EU violates the Good Friday Agreement as far as the loyalist community in Northern Ireland is concerned.Lord Frost's recent article is right in tone and content. He now needs to be careful in negotiations not to allow the EU to insert its controls in the way of GB/Northern Ireland trade. That trade should be regulated and policed by the UK and NI authorities. Of course they should make sure people are  not using easy access to NI to then send things onto the Republic which are not EU compliant. There is no evidence this is happening. The UK authorities have every interest in not allowing that. There is no need to submit trucks taking supermarket produce from GB to named stores in Northern Ireland to special checks in case they were planning to go on to the Republic, because they are not. In an age of computer manifests, truck tracking, pre filed journey and stock schedules trade should be allowed to flow. Any checks or audits that are needed in NI should be for the UK to carry out, and any needed in the Republic for the EU. There have been smuggling problems on theUK/Republic border during our time in  the EU which were always sorted out by co-operation from each side whilst respecting the different jurisdictions. .Either the EU agrees sensible mutual enforcement with each jurisdiction taking responsibility on its own territory or the UK must simply impose that on the UK side. It is the best and most practical way of implementing the stated aims of the Protocol.... John Redwood

[debsdowner] 17/5/2021 12:57

SPRINGBOARD:

"The latest easing of restrictions doesn’t seem to have prompted more people to get out to visit the shops – so far at least.

According to a count done at 10:00 BST, the number of people visiting shops overall was down by 3.2% compared with the same time on Monday 10 May.

When the figures are broken down, they show footfall on high streets was 3% lower, while retail parks saw a 2.6% fall in shoppers and shopping centres a drop of 4.2%.

However, compared with before the pandemic the figures make even more depressing reading.

The number of people going into shops on high streets was down by 42%, compared with the equivalent Monday in 2019, 31.2% lower in shopping centres and 5.1% down in retail parks. That means overall footfall to all shopping destinations was 30.5% lower.

The figures were put together by specialist data firm Springboard, which tracks how many customers are visiting stores across the UK."

[tlobs2] 17/5/2021 09:07

When will the marketing experts at M&S realise that emails containing 80%-90% BAME "models" are putting many of their traditional customers off shopping with them???

Including us !

[johnwise] 17/5/2021 08:06

Marks and Spencer shoppers go wild for 'delicious' £15 chicken feast for 4 deal

Marks and Spencer has got foodies excited by announcing a tasty new chicken feast deal. Shoppers can get their hands on a whole load of treats for their family for just £15

[johnwise] 17/5/2021 08:06

Vaccines prevent 97 per cent of Covid infections from Indian variant and NO fully vaccinated people in UK have died from it, scientists say

International study finds vaccines have 97% effectiveness against Indian variant

[philanderer] 14/5/2021 11:08

BERENBERG RAISES MARKS & SPENCER PRICE TARGET TO 180 (160) PENCE - 'BUY'

[freedom97] 13/5/2021 21:00

Makes you wonder what they did with all the profit the company made over such a long period of time to not be able to pay its rent.??

[xxxxxy] 13/5/2021 17:20

One of London's oldest shops is to shut its doors for a final time after it said it was unable to pay its rent following the impact of the pandemic.Arthur Beale on Shaftesbury Avenue in the West End is to close after 150 years in the location.The company itself, which sells sailing equipment and accessories, was formed as John Buckinghams around 500 years ago.... Yahoo Finance

[johnwise] 13/5/2021 14:46

British Airways trialling ‘game-changer’ COVID-19 test with results in 25 seconds

While some private testing results can take 48 hours or more, British Airways announced on Thursday it will be the first airline in the world to conduct the Pelican ultra-rapid COVID-19 antigen tests that deliver results within just 25 seconds.

[dutch123] 13/5/2021 13:09

well that was a nice buying opportunity to get back in..

[pdosullivan] 13/5/2021 09:23

I wrote a blog on the buy case for M&S here: https://tbifund.wordpress.com/2021/05/12/mks-this-is-not-just/

[debsdowner] 13/5/2021 09:01

Markets meltdwn at moment "sell in May and go away" the adage !

[johnwise] 13/5/2021 08:21

UPDATE: Full-Scale War Imminent for Israel and Hamas?