Marks & Spencer
Major British multinational department store company
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| 2024 | The Cheltenham home store was closed, marking the end of its operational period. |
| 2024 | The company set a strategic goal to reduce its UK locations to 180 full-line and 420 food stores, acknowledging the higher operational costs of legacy stores. |
| December 2024 | Gove's successor Angela Rayner approved the store's demolition, citing regeneration and economic benefits. |
| September 2024 | Undercover footage revealed workers mistreating cows at an RSPCA Assured farm supplying milk to M&S, including striking cows with poles, kicking them, and jabbing a cow with a screwdriver. M&S immediately suspended the farm from their supply chain, and the RSPCA also suspended the farm. |
| June 28 2024 | M&S announced a new clothing repair and alteration service in partnership with Sojo company. |
| May 2024 | Animal welfare activists released footage from intensive RSPCA Assured farms showing sick, dying, and dead hens. M&S suspended one of the farms supplying meat to their stores. |
| April 2024 | The Guardian obtained footage of pigs from RSPCA Assured farms being hit in the face by workers before entering a gas chamber, prompting an RSPCA investigation. |
| March 1 2024 | A High Court judge quashed Gove's previous decision blocking the store's demolition. |
| February 2024 | M&S reported it would not pay the final £191 million instalment to Ocado after performance targets were not met in 2023. |
| February 2024 | The proposed redevelopment of the Marks & Spencer store near Marble Arch was successfully appealed. |
| November 2023 | The High Court allowed M&S to proceed with a judicial review of Gove's decision. |
| July 2023 | Michael Gove rejected M&S's plans to demolish and redevelop the Oxford Street store, citing heritage, design, and carbon impact concerns. |
| July 2022 | Secret cameras captured animal welfare violations at a North Yorkshire dairy farm supplying milk and cheese to M&S, revealing lame animals unable to reach water and workers killing goats deemed 'of no value'. |
| April 2022 | A proposed redevelopment of the Marks & Spencer store near Marble Arch on Oxford Street in London was blocked. |
| November 2021 | Westminster City Council approved the Marble Arch store redevelopment plans, despite protests from heritage groups. |
| September 2021 | Half of M&S's French stores were closed due to Brexit-related supply chain issues. |
| September 2021 | Marks & Spencer confirmed the closure of 11 stores in France and ended its partnership with SFH due to difficulties serving fresh and chilled products after Brexit, while maintaining nine smaller stores near major travel hubs. |
| May 2021 | M&S announced plans to close an additional 30 shops over the next 10 years as part of its turnaround strategy. |
| March 2021 | M&S announced plans to redevelop its largest Marble Arch store on Oxford Street, London, into a 10-storey building with reduced retail space. |
| 2020 | M&S began directing customers to Ocado's website for food and selected clothing item orders. |
| 2020 | The company cut 7,000 jobs due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 2019 | M&S acquired a 50% stake in Ocado Retail Ltd for up to £750 million, replacing Waitrose as Ocado's retail partner. |
| January 15 2019 | The company identified the next wave of 17 stores to be closed. |
| 2018 | Marks & Spencer introduced a hijab in its school uniforms section for girls as young as three, which faced customer backlash and boycott. |
| September 27 2018 | Holly Willoughby became the company's brand ambassador, launching her 'Must Have' collection, but the company failed to order sufficient stock, disappointing many customers. |
| May 23 2018 | M&S managers confirmed plans to close 14 more shops and put another 86 stores under investigation due to falling sales and reduced customer footfall. |
| May 22 2018 | M&S announced a 'radical' plan to close over 100 stores by 2022, signaling a significant restructuring strategy. |
| January 2018 | Marks & Spencer sold its stores in Hong Kong and Macau to Al-Futtaim Group, a Dubai-based long-term franchise partner. |
| January 31 2018 | M&S announced the closure of fourteen stores, to be implemented in April 2018, with eight additional stores earmarked for potential closure pending consultation. |
| 2017 | M&S began trials of online food deliveries, marking their initial entry into digital grocery services. |
| November 2017 | Several smaller Marks & Spencer stores were identified for closure. |
| January 7 2016 | Announcement made that Marc Bolland would step down as CEO on 2 April 2016, to be replaced by Steve Rowe. |
| 2015 | M&S began identifying around 30 stores for closure as part of a business restructuring. |
| May 2014 | Marks & Spencer revised its plan to open 100 stores in India by 2016. |
| December 2013 | M&S announced a policy allowing Muslim checkout staff to refuse selling pork products or alcohol, which prompted significant customer backlash and a subsequent company apology. |
| November 2013 | Bill Adderley, founder of Dunelm Group, was revealed to have built a £250 million stake in M&S over the past 18 months. |
| November 11 2013 | Marks & Spencer announced plans to open about 80 stores in India by 2016, partnering with Reliance Retail, and opened a flagship store in Bandra, Mumbai. |
| September 17 2013 | The British ambassador to the Netherlands, Sir Geoffrey Adams, opened the first Dutch Marks & Spencer Food pilot store at a BP petrol station in Bijleveld. |
| May 2013 | Marks & Spencer launched the Best of British range and overhauled Per Una and Indigo fashion lines. Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne became the marketing director, succeeding Steven Sharp. |
| April 17 2013 | A new Marks & Spencer store opened in Kalverstraat, Amsterdam, Netherlands, more than 10 years after the previous store's closure. |
| November 24 2011 | The company reopened its store in Paris. |
| October 11 2011 | Marks & Spencer launched a new French website. |
| 2010 | M&S online flower service was accused of unfair trading by using Google to piggy-back advertise on Interflora's online search results. |
| November 9 2010 | CEO Marc Bolland revealed plans to strengthen the company's brand image, targeting sales of £800 million to £1 billion, and announced the discontinuation of the 'Portfolio' fashion brand and sale of electrical products. |
| October 2010 | Chairman Sir Stuart Rose signed a letter to The Daily Telegraph arguing that the private sector could generate jobs to replace public sector losses, despite recent staff cuts of 1,000 employees. |
| August 2010 | M&S confirmed the closure of the Grantham branch and two other Lincolnshire stores in Skegness and Scunthorpe due to low sales, despite local community protests. |
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article Marks & Spencer, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.