UK core business

In a year of tough trading conditions M&S has continued to produce clothes for ‘Every Woman, Every Time’. We remain flexible to respond to catwalk trends and create fast-fashion ranges for the under-35 woman, shown by our collaboration with Patricia Field – one of the most high profile launches of the year.

We also continue to produce classic tailoring for our older customers. This year we launched our ‘Portfolio’ range in 190 stores, aimed at 40+ women and bridging the gap between our ‘per una’ and ‘Classic’ sub-brands.

With the retirement of George Davies the womenswear team will now evolve the ‘per una’ brand, launching the new collection in-store for autumn. With all parts of our clothing business now under one management team, we are better able to share best practice across our business units, adopt a consistent approach to pricing, and leverage our scale in the buying process to ensure the best possible value. It also means we can eliminate duplication across our ranges and create clothes to hit all price points. This positions us well to tackle the challenges ahead.

We began a strategic review of our womenswear brands two years ago. The aim was threefold: to clearly segment all our brands in line with our clear customer profiles; to keep our brands fresh; and to offer great quality and value at all price points.

We have made progress on each of these aims. We have defined our brands and also signposted our ‘shops’ (see below). These mini departments provide all of the other essentials such as footwear and accessories – needed to provide a full lifestyle choice for our customers, as well as covering seasonal or special occasion pieces such as Holiday and Cashmere.

We are continuing to focus all of our ranges so that each brand stands for something unique and addresses different age and style needs. We know that there are still some areas that need to be simplified; being clear about each brand will enable us to do this.

We have edited our main range so that all of our garments are now clearly identifiable as one of the M&S branded ranges. As we went through this process it was clear that we were left with a gap in casualwear. To address this, we will launch the Indigo collection.

'Classic' is aimed at our mature customers who want co-ordinated designs that are comfortable and feminine.

'Portfolio' is our new collection for our core customer. Launched as a small collection in January, sales have been encouraging. We are confident we have the right product – with smart tailoring, coordinated soft separates, more sleeves, modest necklines and flattering skirt lengths – and we will be putting greater depth behind the collection, growing it to a full lifestyle brand.

'per una' is our most feminine brand. It is bold and colourful and features plenty of detail. Now that it is under the direction of our womenswear team we will be working closely with our customers to better develop the brand.

'Indigo' will be home to our remaining casualwear ranges, including essentials and denim.

'Autograph' includes Essentials, Weekend and Occasions, and is our biggest category. It is defined by luxurious fabrics and a high level of detailing, but its signature pared-down look means it remains contemporary and smart, ideal for careerwear.

'Limited Collection' is our fashion-forward brand. Fashion must-haves and newness is the DNA, with new stock phased in weekly.

Fashion and clothing is about affordability as well as style. We strive to deliver on both these aspects as illustrated by our 'Dress for Less' campaign. Fronted by Myleene Klass, the campaign shows our customers how to achieve five different looks from five wardrobe staples, costing just £15.00.

In all of our departments, and within all of our brands, we offer a clear pricing hierarchy so that shoppers can see whether they are shopping from our 'good', 'better', or 'best' ranges. For example a basic cotton blend white shirt from our Careerwear shop, which would fall under our 'good' pricing point, costs £7.50; a pure cotton shirt with pleating detail, also from Careerwear, costs £15.00 and is an example of a'better' pricing point; while a long sleeved pure cotton shirt from 'Autograph' costs £29.50 and is an example of a 'best' pricing point.

To achieve better pricing, but without compromising on quality or design, we have been focused on what we call ‘garment engineering’, as a way of working with our suppliers to reduce the cost of clothes without reducing quality. For instance by asking our fabric suppliers to increase the width of their weave, we can get more from a roll of fabric.

Knowing our customers is fundamental to the way we develop products. We constantly review our clothes through focus groups, across core ages and among different lifestyles. For example we work closely with the Womens’ Institute. This is best shown by the creation of ‘Portfolio’, which directly responds to customers asking for clothes that better suit older tastes. We have similarly consulted with customers on the evolution of the ‘per una’ brand. Consultation does not stop when we have launched a range, as we regularly return to our customers to get feedback.

We want our customers to always find what they are looking for – availability is vital to delivering the best service. To address this we are updating our stock planning systems so we can replenish sizes or colours before we run out. This is also helped by the speed and flexibility of our buying departments, which can now buy additional items more quickly and efficiently.

We used to buy clothes twice a year for the spring/summer and autumn/winter seasons. This meant we spent almost 100% of our seasonal buying budget, giving us no flexibility if trading or the weather suddenly changed.

With the help of our suppliers we have now increased our buying to 10 times a year – holding back 25% of our budget to spend 'in season'. In its simplest form, it is about having the flexibility to buy much closer to the season so we can react more quickly to trends, or buy transitional products between seasons, such as cardigans if the summer suddenly turns, or mac coats if it rains. It also helps us to be faster at turning around new fashions, encouraging customers to ‘see it, like it, buy it’ because it will be gone within four weeks and replaced by the next new range.

'Limited Collection' is designed to be first to translate catwalk trends in line with the High Street. We source from Turkey, Morocco, Italy and Spain – with the latter two key for sourcing footwear and accessories for 'Limited Collection'. These markets offer much shorter lead times, so that we can get new products into our stores every week.