The Evolution of Marks and Spencer

Financial data drawn from Marks and Spencer's archives and annual reports is used to identify five phases in the Company's sales growth. Early, rather erratic, growth, often through acquisition, gave way to a second phase of store development funded by the Company's floatation in the 1920s. Sales growth in the third phase came substantively through an increase in store size. A fourth phase involved improvements in labour and space productivity. The final and current phase of evolution emphasises diversification. The pattern of evolution is compared with two theories of retail change, the Wheel of Retailing and the Retail Accordion. Neither is compatible with the sustained growth exhibited, indeed both theories could be said to predict the failure of the Company's overall strategy.