Martha plunges online retail

Annual general meeting of shareholders is an important test of the board of directors. After Tesco had just survived various doubts at the Annual General Meeting, Marks & Spencer, Britain's largest apparel retailer, also suffered the collective disappointment of shareholders. A few days ago Marks & Spencer announced a quarterly results show that the high hopes of online retail sector declined by 8.2%, dragged down Marks & Spencer market performance. After this shareholder meeting, Marks and Spencer CFO Alan Stewart transferred Tesco arm, and then Marks & Spencer Department of the current situation to add a layer of haze.

Marks & Spencer held its annual shareholders' meeting on Tuesday while small shareholders of Marks & Spencer department store Marc Bolland, their CEO, said they have lost patience with Marks & Spencer. As of June 28, 2014 in the first quarter earnings report, Marks & Spencer department store sales in the consolidated 11 consecutive quarters of decline. Some shareholders said that every year, the shareholders of the General Assembly will be confident to the shareholders that they want to look forward to the performance of the year, but the next year to return shareholders is still full of disappointment.

Since assuming office in 2010, Bolland has invested £ 2.3 billion in investment plans for Marks & Spencer to redesign products and stores and hire new clothing teams. However, although the three-year plan expired in the previous fiscal year, its performance on Marks & Spencer has not been effectively improved.

More noteworthy is that in the old not solve the same time, the decline in sales of Martha's official website has become a major new issue. A quarterly earnings report released prior to the annual general meeting of shareholders showed a plunge of 8.1% in this segment.

Statistics show that in February this year, Marks & Spencer has placed great hopes of the new website platform put into operation. To this end, Marks & Spencer Department Store set up a logistics center in Donington Castle last year, and this year a lot of promotional activities, and strive to cultivate new shopping habits of consumers to help businesses make the transition.

Although Marks & Spencer said the new site needs 4-6 months of acclimatization, the online revenue of Marks and Spencer, for the first quarter, did not justify these inputs. Alan Stewart, CFO of Marks & Spencer at the Annual General Meeting, disclosed that there are 3.2 million registered customers on the new site and the company expects a final number of 6 million.

Marks and Spencer also revealed that year-on-year sales of non-food products decreased by 1.5%. Bolland said Marks & Spencer has been steadily improving in apparel, but Martha's new website has indeed affected Marks & Spencer's sales performance.

Two days after the annual shareholders meeting, Marks & Spencer again reported the departure of executives. Alan Stewart, who was still explaining the financials for Marks & Spencer at the shareholders' meeting, will step down to Tesco, the world's third-largest retailer, as CFO, but Stewart can not go before the end of the year due to competition terms. Tesco arrives.

His resume shows that starting from October 2010, Stewart has started as CFO at Marks & Spencer. After switching to Tesco, his base salary will rise from £ 579,000 at Marks & Spencer to £ 750,000, while Tesco also offers him £ 174 million worth of stock options.

Some analysts said Martha's gloomy outlook is the reason for leaving his left will be the recovery of Marks & Spencer Department brought a heavy blow.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Li Du Lu Ye Shan / compile