Marks & Spencer may be retaining its Irish operations but the stores group is finally abandoning its long-held ambition to become a truly global retailer.

It was in 1972, almost 90 years after the business was founded, that M&S made its first move overseas, opening a store in Canada. It moved into France and Belgium three years later.

The big prize – America – came in 1988, when M&S took over Brooks Brothers, the formal menswear retailer renowned for its preppy style. It was to prove a disastrous deal: bought for $750 million (€681m), the business was offloaded 13 years later for just $225 million.

In 1990s, M&S expanded rapidly throughout Europe and, by 1997, when it was racking up profits of £1 billion a year – the first British retailer to do so – the group unveiled ambitious plans to spend more than £2 billion on international expansion. The ultimate goal was to earn a quarter of its revenues overseas.

In Europe, the first retreat came at the same time as the Brooks Brothers sale. In later years, under new chief executives, M&S managed to avoid the temptation to pursue its American dream but succumbed to the lure of expansion elsewhere.

Biting the bullet

Now, under new chief executive Steve Rowe, M&S is finally biting the bullet, withdrawing from 10 loss-making overseas markets, including China and France, and its flagship store on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. The group will still have franchised outlets but 53 company-owned stores will close, with the loss of over 2,000 jobs.

Exiting loss-making overseas markets is a sensible move, freeing up resources and management time. After all, M&S has struggled in recent years to understand the needs of its customers in the core UK business, so why on earth would it think it could successfully serve shoppers further afield?

In the UK, 30 stores will be closed as the ailing but dominant clothing operation is cut back in favour of the successful Simply Food business. Clothing departments will be axed in as many as 60 stores.

The new boss, an M&S “lifer” who took over in April, has identified the retailer’s neglected core customer, dubbed “Mrs M&S”, and is making best efforts to deliver what she wants.

But as the sales figures show – down 2.9 per cent in clothing and home in the second quarter – it’s proving a struggle. Talk of falling sales and recovery plans are all too familiar at M&S – if a fashion retailer can’t get its clothing right, just how much longer can the struggle continue?

‘Spooks Direct’

Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct company has been renamed “Spooks Direct” in the City after an impromptu visit by MPs descended into farce amid accusations of spying and hidden cameras.

The six MPs, members of the business, innovation and skills committee, turned up at Sports Direct’s controversial Shirebrook warehouse on Monday, giving the company just an hour’s warning of their arrival.

The short notice was all part of the plan, explained the committee chairman Iain Wright: “I wanted to make sure that it’s not all smelling of fresh paint and we get a real impression of the company,” he said.

In June Ashley issued an open invitation for politicians to tour the vast warehouse, where the company has been accused of subjecting its employees to “disturbing Victorian working practices”.

Ashley, who was out of the country on Monday, has promised to do better after the storm of criticism that greeted the revelations over conditions at the warehouse, but he does not appear to have put in place a plan in the event the politicians took him up on his offer of a tour.

Warehouse stand-off

The MPs were granted access to the warehouse but only after a tense stand-off with company representatives. After the tour, the visitors were taken to a meeting room and offered a tray of sandwiches. But the sandwich lady also brought a camera with her, which she hid beneath the stool – none too subtlety, it seems.

Said MP Anna Turley: “I watched her put the device on the floor and when she left I said, ‘Bloody hell, guys, they are trying to record us.’ It’s not James Bond, more Austin Powers.” Turley later tweeted a picture of the sandwiches – and the camera.

Sports Direct’s board denied any knowledge of the camera and said the company, which also controls the Heatons chain in Ireland, was “disappointed” that the reporting of the “possible recording device” had overshadowed the visit.

Ashley’s promise to repair the company’s battered reputation is clearly proving an uphill struggle. In the meantime, Sports Direct should stick to selling sportswear and leave the spying to the spooks. Fiona Walsh is business editor of the guardian.com