Already beset by image problems, chainstore Marks & Spencer may soon jettison its trademark St Michael label. The English company has recently experienced a steep fall in sales; last November, it announced a 23 per cent drop in profits and described the clothing market as a "blood bath". Now, there are reports Marks & Spencer could see profits halved this year, leading to a desperate search for ways to revitalise the business.
One possibility might be to follow the example of many other English chains and employ the services of well-known fashion designers. Marks & Spencer has already worked with a number of familiar names such as Paul Smith, Betty Jackson and the young Welsh knitwear wizard Julian McDonald.
However, these designers have only acted as consultants and not produced lines of clothing to be sold in stores under their own names. If Marks & Spencer were to take this route, it would be entering an established game in which many of the best players had already been snapped up. Debenhams is the leader in the field, with a daunting number of designers offering specially-commissioned diffusion ranges in its stores.
These include Jasper Conran (who also designs a range of homeware goods for the company), Ben de Lisi, Maria Grachvogel, Philip Treacy, Lulu Guinness, Pearce Fionda and, for men, Ozwald Boateng. Current star of English interior decoration Kelly Hoppen has also joined the Debenhams team. Meanwhile, among the rest of the English chains, Clements Ribeiro designs a line of clothing for Dorothy Perkins, Hussein Chalayan for Top Shop, Amanda Wakeley for Principles and Owen Gaster for BHS.
Marks & Spencer may, therefore, have trouble finding anyone left to create new lines for the company although, as yet, no Irish designer has produced an English chainstore range. For a number of years, A Wear has employed domestic talent in this manner; at the moment, lines of clothing from the Quin & Donnelly and Marc O'Neill labels are sold in A Wear outlets throughout the country. Other names with whom the company has worked in the past include Mary Gregory, Richard Lewis and John Rocha.
The last of these would be the most obvious contender for an English multiple, along with Louise Kennedy and Lainey Keogh. Should Marks & Spencer choose to establish overt links with designers, this would signal a radical change of direction for a business which until now has avidly sought only to promote its own name brand. St Michael is one of the most-widely recognised labels in retailing. However, while acting as an assurance of quality, St Michael has come to be perceived as conservative and often out of step with contemporary taste.
This is one explanation for the company's recent poor performance. Marks & Spencer's plunging profits have already resulted in a major internal shake-up with some 31 senior managers - including three directors - losing their jobs last month. Hundreds of additional redundancies are expected.
It is not yet clear what impact this will have on Marks & Spencer's operations in Ireland where the company has been joined by many other English chains in recent years. Among newcomers are Karen Millen, which opened its first branch in Dublin last Christmas, and French Connection, which is due to unveil a new store in Powerscourt Townhouse Centre later this month. However, some observers believe the Irish market is now saturated by English chains which have been less well received by consumers than might have been expected.
Of late, Marks & Spencer has been investing heavily in Ireland. Last year, a new £22 million outlet was opened in the Liffey Valley centre and the Marks & Spencer Mary Street branch in Dublin expanded from 64,000 to almost 100,000 sq ft at a cost of £16 million. The Cork outlet was overhauled in 1997 and the company's Irish flagship on Dublin's Grafton Street moved to its present premises in September, 1996.
A spokeswoman for the company in Ireland said Marks & Spencer is "overall happy with the business here; sales are good for spring so far". With regard to the company's growth in this country, she added "this is bedding down now and we're seeing the impact of all our new developments".
