M&S chief is forced to rethink digital-only AGM plan after shareholder backlash
Marks & Spencer’s chairman has suggested it could return to discouraging shareholders from attending next year’s annual meeting in person after a backlash.
Ahead of yesterday’s meeting, the High Street retailer wrote to investors to say: ‘Shareholders are advised not to travel to the venue on the day as the meeting will be entirely digital.’
The move follows a move launched this spring by chairman Archie Norman to modernize popular capitalism by making meetings digital.
Controversial: M&S chairman Archie Norman (pictured) said companies have ‘sleepwalked into a situation’ where shareholders are disconnected from their company
Norman said companies are “sleepwalking into a situation” where shareholders are not connected to their company and AGMs are like “outdated events that are not accessible” to those who live outside London or are pressed for time.
M&S meetings were held at Wembley Stadium, where shareholders lined up for free sandwiches.
But this year, investors at the group’s Paddington headquarters were unable to speak to board members or offer drinks.
Instead, they were told to join the meeting “electronically” on phones or laptops.
Norman admitted to Anita Anand – the BBC radio presenter who handles shareholder questions – that the company has ‘heard the feedback and we are considering it’.
He added: “The question the board needs to think about now, given the feedback we’ve been getting, is, ‘Why can’t I physically come over and look at the chairman face to face and give him a knot in the hole? ?”‘
Norman admitted that he didn’t think this was “unreasonable.”