Marks & Spencer sales figures leak: cock-up or conspiracy?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jan/10/marks-and-spencer-sales-figures-leak

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If the bookies offered odds on FTSE 100 bosses to lose their jobs this year, as they do with Premier League football managers, Marc Bolland would be near the top of the list. He's a big-money signing who is falling short of expectations. The perpetual promise that trading is about to improve at Marks & Spencer is wearing thin with shareholders.

In his search for stability and authority, Bolland certainly did not need M&S's quarterly trading figures to partially leak. Cock-up or conspiracy? If it's the former, somebody's job is on the line. If it's the latter, Bolland has enemies within as well as doubters without. It would recall the early 2000s at M&S, an era of management infighting and revolving boardroom doors. At the moment, though, it's a case of more questions than answers.

As for the numbers themselves, they confirmed the impression that M&S remains behind schedule. Food sales, up 0.3% on a like-for-like basis, showed the weakest rate of growth of the three quarters of the current financial year. Food is performing "very well," said Bolland. OK-ish would be closer to the mark.

Clothing, though, is where investors' attention is concentrated. General merchandise's like-for-like sales have been all over the place: down 6.8% in the first quarter, down 1.8% in the second and now minus 3.8% in the third. "Not yet satisfactory," admitted Bolland. You bet.

But, of course, profit margins are as important as sales for a retailer. On that front, Bolland had better news – M&S, he said, stayed away from heavy discounting and promotions. That's the (very successful) Next approach and there's no shame in copying it. It ought to mean that Bolland will still be around to unveil the autumn ranges when, if the hype is fulfilled, a rejigged collection of executives will wow the world with their creations. We shall see.

In the meantime, Bolland is a chief executive who could use a show of public support from his chairman, Robert Swannell. A vote of confidence is usually a kiss of death in football-land but not in public companies. A late-evening post-leak call, with Bolland clearly anxious, might have been the moment to put in an appearance. Swannell didn't.