Marks & Spencer (M&S) Group PLC announced plans to close 60 UK stores and retreat from 10 countries as chief executive officer Steve Rowe unwinds the expansion efforts of his predecessor in an effort to reverse years of underperformance.
The domestic closures are to take place over five years and reduce the amount of space devoted to clothing and home wares by 10 percent, the London-based retailer said in a statement yesterday, also cutting its margin outlook for the year.
M&S is also to shut 53 stores outside the UK and to start consultations with 2,100 workers.
Photo: Bloomberg
“These are tough decisions, but vital to building a future M&S that is simpler, more relevant, multi-channel and focused on delivering sustainable returns,” Rowe said in the statement.
Rowe this year replaced Marc Bolland as CEO and is taking immediate action to address the UK fashion retailer’s struggles at home and abroad. Domestic clothing sales have been in near constant decline for five years as shoppers defect to nimbler rivals such as Hennes & Mauritz AB and Inditex’s Zara.
International earnings have been weighed down by weak demand in Europe and turbulent economic conditions in Asia and the Middle East.
M&S expects gross margins in its clothing and home business to expand by between zero and 0.5 percentage points this year as a whole, cutting the forecast due to the weakness of the pound. The retailer had previously predicted an expansion of between 0.5 and 1 percentage point.
Underlying group pretax profit fell 19 percent to £231.3 million (US$287.44 million) in the first half. That compared with the £218 million estimate of 18 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last