History
In 1884 Michael Marks, a Russian born Polish refugee opened a stall at Leeds Kirkgate market. Since then, Marks and Spencer was born, opening over 300 stores worldwide and also being the UK’s largest clothing retailer.
In 1999, online shopping was introduced to their website for customers to enjoy in the comfort of their own home. The internet had just started to become known and more and more people were staring to use it, so Marks and Spencer took this opportunity and set this up at the correct time.
In 2000, M&S brought out their healthy ‘Count on us’ range, for the healthier people on diets or who were just watching what they ate.
Their 1st ‘Simply food’ stores opened in Surbiton & Twickenham in 2001, selling nothing but healthy food, no home furnishing or clothes like the normal stores.
They also launched ‘Per Una’ a brand of clothing specifically targeting the fashion-conscious women. Shortly after in January 2001, ‘Blue Harbour’ was introduced, a casual wear brand for males.
‘View form’ and ‘DB07’ another brand of clothing was introduced in 2002, ‘View form’ for sportswear and ‘DB07’ for children designed in collaboration with David Beckham.
Mission Statement
Marks and Spencer’s mission statement is broken into 3 parts which include:
Vision - To be the standard against which others are measured
Mission - To make aspirational quality accessible to all and
Values - Quality value, service, innovation and trust.
This mission statement has been kept up since the start of making it; M&S have worked hard to achieve all these factors. Even though there have been ups and downs during the years they have tried hard and have kept to their word.
There are many companies which look up to M&S and measure themselves against them, helping their company to improve and gain more customers.
Marks and Spencer’s have been known for their quality value, service, innovation and trust to all their