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Rachel Reeves must know that she is on the wrong side of history when she comes under attack from Britain’s high street favourite Marks & Spencer. Everyone in Britain, including working people, feels they have a stake in M&S, even if customers are mainly drawn from middle Britain. Chief executive Stuart Machin, who together with chairman Archie Norman engineered its resurgence, told the Chancellor ‘she can’t keep blaming the past’ for the Government’s problems. He went on to scold her for a dour Downing Street speech which will bear down on consumer confidence ahead of the Budget and Christmas. Cynics might suggest that Machin was diverting attention away from the dire impact of the late April cyber attack which brought online shopping to a grinding halt, left some food shelves empty and involved considerable recovery costs. M&S was at least better prepared than others. Machin’s personal all-out effort to keep it running through the tumult, and the fact that the company had splashed out on cyber insurance, which could save it £100million, suggests valuable leadership skills. The contrast with the response to the attack on Britain’s most valuable carmaker Jaguar Land Rover, which threatened an existential crisis and took months to fix, could not be starker. Back at M&S, profits in the first half were hit by the cyber attack, but not as badly as expected, with the bill less than the £300million previously notified. Encouragingly for investors, the recovery from a slump in clothing and homeware sales is under way and the innovative food operation put on a 7.8 per cent sales increase. It outshines competitors and was the fastest-growing grocery retailer, behind 50 per cent-owned Ocado, in the last month. M&S shoppers are prepared to pay for premium produce. Fashion took a knock and the mild autumn, counter-intuitively, is not hurting. Winterwear is being delivered but saved for colder days. If there is one fact to encourage investors, it is the group’s improved penetration among womenswear shoppers aged between 18 and 54. This reaches beyond traditional leadership in undergarments. Ahead of the holiday season, winter frocks are expected to do well, with 60,000 to be sold in 15 styles. A return to £1billion profit is way out of reach. But the confidence and durability of the brand should put a spring in the step of a tribe of private shareholders. Sizzling service Imagine how well Britain’s resilient economy would be doing were it not stifled by over-zealous taxation and the public sector crowding out business investment. The latest S&P services purchasing managers’ index was positively scintillating in October, up to 52.3 from 50.8 in September. The survey was taken before the Chancellor’s latest confidence- sapping words and the threat of higher income taxes set in. Given, however, that services are by far the largest driver of UK output, responsible for 80 per cent of the country’s output, this ought to be encouraging. Most people think of services as being haircuts and the local coffee shop. It is much broader, with professional services such as legal, accounting, IT, creativity and architecture driving forward. Bank JP Morgan is not just investing in fintech in the City and Bournemouth. It also relied on Foster + Partners to design its £2.3billion HQ in Manhattan. Way to go! Resisting boycott Unilever refuses to take lessons from the woke mavens at its Ben & Jerry’s ice cream outfit: noisy advocates for the Palestinian cause. Magnum Ice Cream, which is limbering up for an Amsterdam IPO, with secondary quotes in London and New York, has told Ben & Jerry’s chair Anuradha Mittal she ‘no longer meets the criteria’ for the role. This follows a probe filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission in New York. Britain’s leading branded goods group has been robust in resisting Ben & Jerry’s vocal demands for a ceasefire in Gaza. But it fears that the Vermont-based board could cause reputational damage to the brand, and lead to consumer boycotts and investor claims. If only other corporations, along with Aston Villa FC, were as resistant to boycott demands.
