Elizabeth Gaul
Marks & Spencer
Marks & Spencer
In today’s world, consumers are more concerned than ever about where their
food comes from and how it was produced. Often a gap exists between the farm family
that raised the food and the consumer that eats it. For many years the agricultural
industry has been trying to bridge that gap and make the way food is produced more
sustainable. However, a major retailer in the U.K. had already taken that initiative to
help bridge that gap and provide answers to its consumers. That retailer is Marks &
Spencer.
Marks & Spencer is a retail chain based in London. The headquarters is located
in London at Waterside House, close to Paddington station and the Heathrow Express.
Over 21 million people visit their stores each week. It has over 600 stores in the United
Kindom and is expanding internationally. Currently, it has 295 stores in over 40
countries and territories. It is the largest clothing retailer in the United Kingdom and it
the 43rd largest retailer in the world. Wal-Mart is number one. The largest store is
located at Marble Arch on Oxford Street in London. They have over 300 stores
worldwide, none of which are in the U.S. Marks & Spencer is the number one retailer of
women’s wear in the United Kingdom. Clothing and household items make up 49% of
its business. The other 51% if food sales. They sell produce, groceries, partly prepared
meals, and ready to eat meals. Their mission is to make aspirational products available
to everyone. Their values include quality, value, service, innovation, and trust. They
strive to be the standard that to which all other retailers are compared.
In 1882, Jewish immigrant Michael Marks settled in Northern England. He was a
peddler who bought a market stall in Leeds at the Kirkgate Market. Everything in his
stall was classified by price and he stopped selling more expensive items when the
penny selections took off. He called his store Marks Penny Bazaar. As business thrived,
Marks began looking for a business partner. In 1884, Tom Spencer gave £300, and
Marks & Spencer was born. Their first stores were called “Penny Bazaars”.
Over 125 years later, the retailer is doing well and expanding. They had a net
profit of £506,000,000 last year. Last year they had gross sales exceeding £9.1 billion
and employ more than 77,864 employees. They have an operating budget of £870.7
million. They have stock on the London Stock Exchange and pay dividends to the
shareholders. Currently stock is trading for 371.70p.
The retailer is now run by an Executive committee and Board of Directors. The
board is made up of 12 people. The chairman of the board is Sir Stuart Rose. He
started on the board in 2004 but began working at Marks & Spencer in 1972, in retail.
He was knighted in 2008 for his service to retail the corporate social responsibility. The
executive committee is made up of 11 people. Marc Bolland serves as the Chief
Executive of this committee. Rose is currently in the transition of leaving Marks &
Spencer he formally served as both the Chief executive and the chairman of the board.
He will be resigning from the board in March of 2011.
Currently Marks & Spencer is working toward becoming the world’s most
sustainable major retailer. Their goals include becoming carbon neutral and sending
nothing to the landfill by 2012. This was a plan, Plan A, implemented by Rose. Plan A
is a program to reduce waste, control climate change, use sustainable raw materials, be
a fair partner, and promote health. It started with over 100 commitments to complete in
2012 by 2007, and has expanded to over 180 commitments by 2015.
To reduce waste, Marks & Spencer is reducing the amount of bags and other
packaging. They are currently looking for way to increase the amount of recycled
products. By 2012, they would like to have none of their clothing or packaging wastes
go to a landfill.
To reduce climate change and carbon foot print, they are becoming more carbon
neutral, energy efficient in both their stores and warehouses, promoting green business
travel, and utilizing “green” company cars.
Marks & Spencer is increasing their use of sustainable raw materials and food.
They get their produce and meats from sustainable farms and organic farms. They are
pushing to triple the amount of organic food sold in the UK and Ireland. They want to
phase out the use of pesticides both pre-harvest and post-harvest.
To be a fair partner, they want to improve the relationship with their employees
and companies that they work with. They are also concerned with the health of their
customers. They are working to provide healthier food choices, with labels that are easy
for the consumer to utilize. They are also reducing the amount of sweets offered to
children, and using only natural color in sweets and cakes in 2008. The amount of salt
in their products is being reduced.
Marks & Spencer also has many partnerships to help it reach the goals it set.
The World Wildlife Federation is helping Marks & Spencer address issues of food and
textile production. Their main focus is agriculture, marine, and fresh water issues and
reducing the carbon footprint used to harvest and make products. They are also working
with Oxfam to create a clothing exchange program to encourage consumers to recycle
their clothes. When customers donate clothes that they do not wear anymore, they will
receive a £5 coupon when they purchase £35 or more. They raised £1.9 million and last
year also donated soft furniture like sofas. The Woodland trust and Marks & Spencer is
working to plant more trees by recycling old Christmas cards. Marks & Spencer is also
working with Groundwork, an environmental charity, to improve parks, play areas, and
public gardens. They charge 5p for a grocery bag and all the proceeds go to
Groundwork. So far they have raised £ 2.2 million for Groundwork and reduced bag
usage by 400 million bags. They also are working with Breakthrough Breast Cancer
and Prostate Cancer Charity.
Marks & Spencer is a chain that is concerned about animal welfare as well as the
environment. Marks & Spencer is the only retailer to commit to only selling eggs from
free-range or organic sources. All of the food products they sell are also made
exclusively from free-range eggs. None of their animal products come from animals
treated with antibiotic grow promotants or genetically engineered production enhancers.
They have also stopped selling imported white veal and calves liver as it comes from
calves slaughtered for white veal. All of Marks & Spencer’s meat, poultry, fish, and dairy
come from suppliers who are part of the “assured farm” scheme. This program requires
auditing of the standards under which to food is produced. These standards were
developed based on the five freedoms by the Animal Welfare Council. In addition,
Marks & Spencer have worked with its suppliers to eliminate veal crates, eliminate stall
and tether for pigs, reduce and restrict the use of antibiotics, promote free-range poultry,
define and develop good standards of animal husbandry, promote the use of free-range
eggs, develop the non-GM feeding of livestock. In 2002, Marks & Spencer received the
Compassionate Supermarket of the Year and in 2003, it received the title “Welfare
Ideal- Most Advanced Supermarket. In 2007, they were named Compassionate
Supermarket by Compassion to World Farming, a farm animal welfare group. As part of
Plan A, Marks & Spencer is working to convert all of their turkey, geese, duck, and pork
to free range and ensure that all of their fish meet environmental standards. They also
provide their dairy farmers with a guaranteed milk price.
From very humble beginnings, Marks & Spencer has become the leading retail chain in
the United Kingdom. Their stance on sustainability and animal welfare makes it unique.
It has high standards set for its suppliers of all of its products and the raw materials that
they come from. With the implementation of Plan A, they have shown foresight and
concern for the future of animal welfare, agriculture, and the world.
References
“About Us”. 2009. Marks & Spencer. Accessed on 30 Mar. 2010.
http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/aboutus.
Pratley, N. “No joke, Sir Stuart”. Guardian.co.uk. 18 Mar. 2010. Accessed 31 Mar. 2010.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/18/viewpoint-rose.