M&S – How to reward £1bn of profit

Posted At: 20 May 2008 13:00 PM
Related Categories: Retail

M&S find themselves in a fix.  £1bn of profit for the first time in 10 years, but bonus targets not met.  Despite slightly reversing the trend of the last two quarters, the trading conditions are tough – even John Lewis found that 80% of its stores recently reported negative figures year on year.  Our very own retail talking head, Geoff Nicholson, was asked to comment on Radio 5 Live – a challenge to put him on his mettle, not having seen any other comment.

Geoff’s view is that for M&S this is not a sparkling performance, although without the internet sales that proved to be The Partnership’s salvation, it’s not bad.  But £1bn of profit is definitely worth celebrating, whether targets have been met or not.  So M&S has balanced the missed targets by confining the staff bonus to store staff and then at only 4%, compared with 10% last year.

With the situation being variously reported as “M&S axes staff bonuses” to “M&S to reward store teams following £1 billion profit”, it’s no surprise that M&S seem to have tied themselves in a knot whilst trying to keep their balance.

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