Marks and Spencer (MKS) wanted to rip down its flagship Oxford Street store and build a glass palace of commerce in its place. In the eleventh hour, however, housing secretary Michael Gove intervened to preserve the building, with its stately Art Deco edifice and warren-like interior. The pattern of events will be familiar to any long-term M&S shareholder. The retailer has tantalised investors with the promise of reinvention for the past two decades, only to remain trapped in an ageing, siloed business model.
Something has changed over the last year, however. In May, M&S’s full-year profits came in £50mn higher than analysts had expected and, this month, the group upgraded its 2024 profit guidance. Shares are up 70 per cent year-on-year as a result, and M&S is on the cusp of re-entering the FTSE 100.