Changes at the Top for Marks and Spencer

There has been something of a battle going on over at the UK retail giant Marks and Spencer, for the job of Head of General Merchandise with the announcement that John Dixon who not only held that job but was one of the main Board Directors has quit his position.

However, the battle to fill his now vacant position did not last long as he is to be replaced by the current Head of Food Steve Rowe. The usual reason for John Dixon leaving was given that being that he is looking to pursue other interests.

The most likely reason however for him quitting is probably down to the fact that he did not manage to get the top job that being to replace the outgoing Chief Executive Marc Bolland. John Dixon has been at Marks and Spencer for over 30 years now having proved to be very successful in several different departments including food and clothing many people expected him to be a shoe in for the Chief Exec roll, however this proved not to be the case.

Having had some very turbulent times in the last few years Marks and Spencer did recently post a rise in annual profits for the first time in four years back in May of this year and reported a 6.1% rise in profits to £661.2million. However it was several years ago that Marks and Spencer reported profits of over £1Billion so profits have been massively down year on year since 2008.

Yesterday Marks and Spencer shares dropped by 1p with their current share value being 546p, which is a growth of a healthy 60% overall in the share price over the last five years. Should you be looking for some potential retail market sector trades to place then it may be worth keeping any eye on Marks and Spencer in the very near future.

There is of course likely to be an announcement as to who will be the next Chief Executive very shortly, and with the UK economy being on the up at the moment, we are expecting to see this rise in profits at Marks and Spencer continue, if of course the new Chief Executive puts into place a new marketing strategy and can keep the tills ringing at Marks and Spencer which is not as easy a task as you may think!