anything under 7 cheap cheap cheap. good div. just paid. chart looks sick

Bolland spurned by M&S women
By Graham Ruddick | Telegraph – 1 hour 43 minutes ago.. .

The retailer’s CEO is under pressure after falling clothing sales and difficult Christmas trading

By Wednesday afternoon in Marks & Spencer ’s smart Paddington headquarters, Marc Bolland, chief executive, Alan Stewart, its chief financial officer, and a collection of media and investor relations advisors had put the finishing touches to the 129-year-old retailer’s Christmas trading update.

The sales figures were worse than expected much worse in clothing but Bolland was confident that the company’s message that it had avoided heavy sales promotions during the period would settle the nerves of the City.

However, then came one of those chaotic moments that can say as much about the business broadly as they do about the event itself.

At 6.30pm, M&S was informed by Sky News that it planned to run a story that the retailer’s Christmas performance had not been good. It had figures that were uncomfortably close to the truth. Bolland and his team knew they were facing a leak. After consulting lawyers and advisors, they decided to publish the update early.

At 7.51pm, M&S sent the full trading update out on email to the media, investors and analysts as well as publishing the figures on its website.

Thirty minutes later, Bolland and Stewart were hosting a conference call to talk through the results.

“First I want to apologise for the unusual timing of this call,” Bolland started. “I have in my script 'good morning’, but I will say 'good evening’.”

The source of the leak remains unknown. However, the impression that has been left from the events of Wednesday night is that all is not well at M&S. This sort of thing simply does not happen to a blue chip company, let alone M&S, the country’s biggest clothing retailer.

On top of the leak now being investigated by chairman Robert Swannell, were poor trading figures. The 0.3pc rise in like-for-like food sales was below expectations, but this can be accounted for by the fact M&S did not see inflation in food prices and did not include December 30 and 31 in its numbers, which attract strong New Year’s Eve sales.

However, the 3.8pc drop in clothing sales was worse than even the most pessimistic predictions from analysts.

Almost three years into the job, Bolland now looks under more pressure than ever.

When he took over, the former Wm Morrison’s chief executive launched a three-year plan to transform M&S into a modern, multi-national and multi-channel retailer.

He has taken M&S back into Paris, expanded in China, and is building a new website for the company.

However, as M&S enters the final stages of that plan, the company’s vital womenswear range has shown no sign of improvement.

Bolland has said that management changes he has made to the clothing division including the departure of Kate Bostock and the arrival of former Debenhams (Other OTC: DBHSY - news) boss Belinda Earl as style director will not have an impact on the company’s products until the autumn and winter ranges of 2013 and 2014.

The early signs from the City are that Bolland will be given next Christmas to prove himself, but there is no doubt that shareholders and staff are becoming concerned.

After the debacle of the leaked results, Christmas 2013 looks make or break for Bolland. “We recognise that M&S is under some pressure,” said one top ten shareholder. “We’re inclined to give Bolland some time, perhaps six to 12 months, to get it right.

“One of the key issues is womenswear. Clearly he has a relatively new team there, and we want to give him to time to bed-in changes. So we’re not pushing for any change, not yet in any case.”

The early signs as to whether Bolland and the new team can deliver that improvement in general merchandise are mixed.

He believes it would “dreaming in the daylight” to believe that Earl and John Dixon, moved from head of food to lead general merchandise, could already have turned around M&S’s womens clothing.

But he insists the company is on track to meet his goal of transforming it from a “traditional UK retailer” to an “international multi-channel retailer” and, crucially, that the management team is behind him.

“One thing that is good about the last three years is we have had a very aligned board and strongly aligned management team. You haven’t seen mud and dirt thrown around,” Bolland said, adding that there is “nothing wrong” with M&S.

The company’s share price would suggest that investors do believe Bolland’s plan will be successful. Despite the decline in Christmas sales described as “dreadful” by one analyst shares in M&S are up 1pc since the figures were released.

The City welcomed the fact that Bolland and Stewart had protected margins during the Christmas period as Bolland expected they would.

Clive Black, analyst at Shore Capital, has a “Buy” rating on M&S. “We thought long and hard about it and the glass is still half-full on M&S as an investment case. It is not time to empty the glass,” he said.

According to Black, once Bolland’s three-year investment plan is complete, capital expenditure should fall and “an already robust balance sheet can become stronger”. That could open the door to an increased dividend and share buybacks.

However, despite the prospect of improved returns, Black believes the future will still hinge on womenswear: “If I was Mark Bolland I would pray to the clothing gods that they get autumn/winter right.”

However, there are signals that any improvement in sales may not come easily.

On Thursday, in news that barely registered amid the chaos of the night before, Carole Boyes-Weston, head of design for the womenswear labels Per Una and Limited Collection, left the company after only nine months.

There are also murmurs about Bolland’s management style and whether he has been decisive enough on changing the general merchandise division. For example, analysts have suggested that he should focus on making M&S’s individual brands, like Autograph, more distinctive.

A rival retail leader said: “He comes across as unsure and needy. It looks like he is moving the deckchairs around on the Titantic. There has been no bold decisions.”

A second top ten shareholder said it is “watching closely” Bolland’s international growth plans because of fears that M&S is diverting much needed capital expenditure from the UK to abroad.

“Should the business be expanding internationally when they’ve got problems at home?” the shareholder said. “The key thing is to stabilise the UK business.

“If you think about M&S, it’s taking more cost out. But if you take too many staff out the stores end up impacting your own trading performance. That’s what happened at Tesco (Other OTC: TSCDY - news) .

“You’ve got to worry if they’re taking out UK costs and losing share, should they be interested in rolling out internationally?”

The shareholder said they had told Bolland about their concerns: “We’ve questioned the lack of UK capex [capital expenditure] uplift, and whether he’s damaging the UK franchise at the cost of international expansion.”

The comparison to Tesco is a concerning one for Bolland because last Christmas the supermarket group was forced to issue a profits warning, its first in decades. But it will also remind Bolland of how quickly fortunes can change in the retail industry.

Philip Clarke, the Tesco (LSE: TSCO.L - news) chief executive, is now a favourite of the sector after delivering a 1.8pc uplift in like-for-like sales just a year on from the profits warning.

Like Clarke, Bolland recognises the main problem behind the company’s struggles. He will now be hoping that he can repeat the Tesco man’s recovery in sales too.

Are you being served? Not by M&S



There was an eerie quiet on the upper floor of Marks & Spencer’s Covent Garden store at 9am on Friday. Between racks of purple pyjamas and discounted underwear, Sylvia Coxhill, a pensioner from Purley, Surrey, wandered like a heron searching for a fat fish in the reeds.

“It seems they are catering more for people my age nowadays,” the 68-year-old said. “The clothes are comfortable, I know what I’m getting. And I like the price cuts this time of year.”

Downstairs, the food section was busier. Nelle Andrew, 28, and Anna Jean, 28, work at a literary agency nearby. “The ready-meal range is great, and the dips are perfect for a dinner party,” said Andrew. And the clothes? “I’ve never been upstairs. I’ve never asked a friend where her top is from and heard ‘M&S’. And you wouldn’t want to admit it if it was".

Investor fires warning shot at Marks and Spencer boss
By Michael Millar

Mon 14 Jan

LONDON (SHARECAST) - One of the biggest investors in Marks and Spencer has warned that boss Marc Boland has until the autumn to sort the company out before investors lose patience.

The company recently reported that sales of general merchandise, which includes clothing, fell 3.8% fall in its last quarter.

David Cumming, head of UK Equities at Standard Life Investments, the group's 10th largest shareholder with 1.6% of its stock, said Bolland had between six and nine months to sort out clothing if he wanted to keep his job.

He told the BBC's Today Programme M&S had made progress in areas like logistics but the key issue was general merchandise, in particular clothing.

'We're not comfortable with the progress here - they have made management changes but they are a bit late," Cumming said.

"[Boland] has to get his autumn range right, that's when the management changes that he's made will have an impact.

"I think the market will wait to see how that range, which doesn't really come through until six to nine months, is going to work. If that is poor then he'll be under a lot of pressure," he said.

Cummings said the market was willing to wait because the M&S' difficulties were already priced into its shares and the group could still be vulnerable to a bid from private equity.

"So us and the market will wait but he is under pressure," Cumming warned.

Gone long here. Chart looks fantastic for a trade range med term trade. Both horizontal and vertical trading ranges, bouncing from support.

Marks and Sparks looks like a trading buy as long as the FTSE doesnt have a market correction. As usual speculative takeover talk surrounds this stock.

500p+ on Monday £ 8bn bid coming in.

I have a nice few of these but fear the bid rumour for M&S is designer …which would be the right way to play the game before a set of poor results….I love the company.. but £5 would probably convince me…

M&S and OCDO both in extended auction.............

Had a Limit buy @ 381 ETX just executed it @ 398.0 TXATS.

Nice timing on my chart. LOL.

Good call goldfinger.........I don’t think the rumour is believed?....even on a serious red Cyprus day like today the SP should be nearer 450p….those responsible had it off with the same stunt on Sainsbury’s…

Traders being mugged off….investors having the choice. Gimme£5

Morgan Stanley Overweight 390.40 372.50 355.00 440.00 Upgrades

Espirito Santo Execution Noble Sell 390.40 372.50 310.00 310.00 Reiterates

Oriel Securities Buy 390.40 372.50 525.00 525.00 Reiterates

Exane BNP Paribas Underperform 390.40 372.50 310.00 310.00 Reiterates

Trading Statement

M&S delivers strongest quarterly sales growth in the last two years


· Group sales +3.1% *
· Total UK sales +2.6%:Food +6.3%; GM -2.2%
· Like for like UK sales +0.6%:Food +4.0%; GM -3.8%
· Multi-channel sales +22.9%
· International sales +7.0% *


Marks & Spencer clothing sales fall again

LONDON | Thu Apr 11, 2013 7:12am BST
(Reuters) - Retailer Marks & Spencer on Thursday posted a seventh consecutive quarterly fall in underlying general merchandise sales, though the outcome was a touch ahead of expectations.

Marks & Spencer, which has been the subject of takeover speculation, said sales of its non-food products, spanning clothing, footwear and homewares, at stores open over a year fell 3.8 percent in the 13 weeks to March 30, its fiscal fourth quarter.

That compared with analyst forecasts of a decline of 4-6 percent, according to a company poll of 11, and a 3.8 percent fall in the third quarter when M&S moved to protect profit margins by offering fewer discounts.

Marks and Spencer sales nudge ahead

Marks and Spencer sales rose slightly in the first three months of 2013, as good trading from its food business offset a fall in clothing sales.

Like-for-like UK sales were 0.6% higher for the three months to the end of March compared with a year ago.

UK food sales were 4% higher than a year ago, but general merchandising - which includes sales of clothing - was down by 3.8%.

M&S said it had delivered its strongest quarterly sales for two years.

Overall sales, including its international business, were up 3.1% in the quarter.

historically this has been a very dull stock to hold ..... it's possible that there's some decent upside, but wouldn't hold my breath

Nomura Buy 429.00 420.60 420.00 500.00 Reiterates

N+1 Singer Hold 429.00 420.60 - 445.00 Retains

Final Results

Full year results:
• Group sales up 1.3%1 at £10.0bn
• Total UK sales +0.9%: Food +3.9%; General Merchandise -2.4%
• Like-for-like UK sales -1.0%: Food +1.7%; General Merchandise -4.1%
• International sales +4.5%1
• Multi-channel sales +16.6%

• Underlying profit before tax2 £665.2m (last year pro-forma3 £687.2m; reported £705.9m)
• Statutory profit before tax £564.3m (last year £658.0m)
• Underlying basic earnings per share2 32.7p (last year 34.9p)
• Basic earnings per share 29.2p (last year 32.5p)
• Full year dividend 17p per share (last year 17p)
• Net debt £2.6bn (last year pro-forma3 £2.5bn; reported £1.9bn)

Profit down, eps down, more debt and yet stock up..nuts of bull market :)

I take it the webcast went quite well!

Credit Suisse Underperform 465.60 370.00 370.00 Reiterates

Shore Capital Buy 465.60 - - Reiterates

Espirito Santo Execution Noble Neutral 465.60 370.00 370.00 Reiterates

Investec Sell 465.60 - - Retains

N+1 Singer Hold 465.60 445.00 445.00 Retains

Morgan Stanley Overweight 465.60 440.00 440.00 Reiterates

Q1 Interim Management Statement

'Some progress in General Merchandise and an excellent performance in Food'

· Group sales +3.3% *
· Total UK sales +2.7%:Food +4.5%; GM +0.5%
· Like-for-like UK sales +0.3%:Food +1.8%; GM -1.6%
· International sales +8.7% *
· M&S.com sales +29.9%