M&S v Primark: The Clothing War It Can't Win
Updated: 2:03pm UK, Tuesday 05 November 2013
By James Sillars, Sky News Business
It's a battle for your business. A war to win your custom. M&S has been losing ground to rivals and its problems still run deep.
Marks & Spencer was once of the darling of the retail sector - with its clothing offering top of the pile - but it failed to move with the times.
Suddenly there were challengers to its 'something for everyone' dominance and crucially they were cheaper, online and more adaptable to changing fashions.
Family budgets have been feeling the pinch since the financial crisis of 2008 as a result of the overall cost of living rising faster than wage growth.
That squeeze has tightened - forcing many retailers, including M&S, to discount, advertise aggressively and therefore damage their bottom lines.
Not so at Primark, with its soaring revenues, profits and store growth.
Primark has made its name offering fashionable clothes at affordable prices. That is its brand. Its timing could not have been better.
It grew total sales by 22% to £4.3bn in the year to September - expanding its selling space across major cities to bring an "exciting, fashionable and fun shopping experience".
M&S total sales rose by 3.1% in the UK over the six months to September 30 - but the growth did not come from clothes.
In contrast to the struggles of M&S as it tries to kickstart its fashion business, Primark's buying teams are celebrating autumn/winter and spring/summer ranges selling out.
M&S tried a counter-attack against the threat from the cheaper brands but admitted in May it would once again focus on style and quality, shifting its focus to recapturing custom in the crucial area of womenswear.
Andrea Felsted, the FT's senior retail correspondent, told Sky News that womenswear remained its main challenge.
"It really is the cornerstone of M&S. The launch in May ... there were some improvements but it really will have to be seen whether that does play out.
"M&S did suffer some stock shortages in September. It said it was a return to quality but the FT reported that they'd even had some quality problems with the iconic piece in the campaign the pink coat ... some of the poppers were not sewn on properly.
"That's not exactly the quality they would have been hoping for," she said.
M&S launched its Leading Ladies advertising campaign, featuring a dozen high-profile women including actress Dame Helen Mirren and Olympic boxer Nicola Adams, on September 12 and its first Christmas advert hits TV screens on Wednesday.
Such campaigns cost millions of pounds - as does a drive for quality.
No wonder then that M&S is on a different playing field to that of Primark. Their clothing business models could not be more different.
Marks and Spencer's opponents lie elsewhere on the high street.
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