Archie Norman: M&S turnaround has taken too long
Marks & Spencer chairman Archie Norman admits turnaround has ‘taken too long’
Marks & Spencer’s chairman has admitted that the turnaround has “taken too long”.
In a radio interview, Archie Norman also said the state of the High Street retailer was ‘fragile’ and that it could ‘slip back’ if executives turned their attention away from the ball.
He has chaired the FTSE 250 group since September 2017.
Norman, 69, joined less than a year after then-CEO Steve Rowe announced a five-year cost-cutting drive and shakeup for M&S’s clothing and homeware lines. Norman was chief executive and later chairman of Asda from 1991 to 1999 and is credited with saving the supermarket before it was sold to US giant Walmart.
But he said his time at M&S had been much tougher.
Admission: Archie Norman said the state of the High Street retailer was ‘fragile’ and it could ‘slip back’ if executives turned their attention away from the ball
“M&S has been, in some ways, the most persistent retail challenge in my career of turnarounds,” he told LBC’s Money podcast.
“Asda was undoubtedly in worse shape, but roughly speaking M&S had suffered 25 years of drift until recently,” adding: “It was a big challenge.
‘I think it has taken too long. I was [at the company] for five and a little years. I wake up every day asking ‘What the hell have I done?’
But Norman cautioned that he believes it’s “all fragile.” “It can slide back,” he said.
“We must keep the spirit of the turnaround.”
He spoke on a podcast that aired the day before the company’s annual meeting. Norman has led a recent campaign called Share Your Voice that aims to increase shareholder democracy and increase individual investor engagement.
But he was criticized by organizations that had supported the campaign for encouraging supporters not to come to the annual meeting. His comments come amid a huge uptick for the company which has seen its share price rise nearly 40 percent in 12 months.
The resurgence involved closing dozens of larger stores and refurbishing others to lure customers back, saving hundreds of millions of pounds a year.
M&S has overhauled its clothing range, helping it cash in as workers returned to the office and people moved back out after Covid lockdown restrictions ended.
Profit and sales were up in the year to April 1, though a deal it struck in 2020 with online supermarket Ocado struggled a bit.
Norman, who was Conservative MP for Tunbridge Wells between 1997 and 2005 and shadow environment minister under William Hague, said it was important for the chain to shake off its aging reputation.
“One of the things I always hear from people is, ‘I like M&S; I used to go shopping there with my mom “and your heart sinks,” he said.
“That’s nice, but it’s not what we want to be today.
“We absolutely want to be for the modern mainstream.
“We’re 30 to 40 percent on our way to being what we can be.”