Sir Stuart Rose, executive chairman of Marks and Spencer, yesterday said the UK retailer made several “basic shopkeeping” mistakes when launching its troubled first store on the Chinese mainland, but that the company remains committed to building more stores in China and roughly doubling the international share of group revenues.
Sir Stuart spoke in a Financial Times interview during his first visit to the flagship M&S Shanghai store, where trading has been affected by food supply problems and shortages of the smaller-sized clothes demanded in the country.
In spite of the global economic crisis and trading problems in the UK, M&S still plans to boost international business to 15-20 per cent of group revenues from under 10 per cent now, Sir Stuart said. More Chinese stores are planned, though “we will not rush to conquer China . . . until we conquer the basics of shopkeeping” in China, he said. He declined to be drawn on whether the group's problems in the UK would force a dividend cut.
