M&S – a bit more pizzazz, please

M&S logo

Our retail specialist audits the wines currently on offer from his ex-employer.

On 4 November, venerable high-street retailer Marks & Spencer announced its first loss in 94 years as a public company. The first-half results showed the company posting a pre-tax loss of £87.6 million, on reduced turnover of £4.1 billion (down 16% on the previous year). In the perverse way in which the stock market sometimes works, the share price duly climbed, currently sitting (at the time of writing) at the highest level for over six months.

M&S’s performance needs to be set against the strong general retail performance...