Complete 6 pages APA formatted article: Stategic management. A UK retail report that was released by Retail Intelligence compared sales of M&S ranging from year 1990 until 2000. This survey highli

Complete 6 pages APA formatted article: Stategic management. A UK retail report that was released by Retail Intelligence compared sales of M&S ranging from year 1990 until 2000. This survey highlighted the issue, and was also unsure if the struggling group would recover at all. However, the survey also highlighted that the group would be able to recover if it produced well – made clothes, which are moderately fashionable at competitive prices, provided the company also maintained the quality standards.

The company had seen continuous growth until 1990 in terms if its profits and market share. The company had been able to handle this by using fundamental formula for its operations like simple pricing structures, high quality merchandise and friendly and helpful service. There are a number of possible underlying reasons for the decline of M&S in the early 2000s.

Firstly, the shifts in demographic balance, is one of the most important factors that caused the company to decline. This mainly refers to the fact that there was a shift in the key customers of the company. The balance of the population of UK was moving towards the older people and this was threatening as it created a serious deterioration for companies (Davies, 1995). The older population with the high levels of pension provision and high health care costs for the people was causing deterioration for M&S, as for other companies as well. M&S’s strategy was designed in a manner to cater to all the levels of the society by providing quality products at competitive prices.

Secondly, there were larger amounts of wealth that was available among the general public. This caused the people to look for buying clothes as they were seeking status through clothes. This was one issue where the choice of the people was changing, and the buying power of the general public was increasingly growing.

Also the company found it difficult to compete with the supermarkets. The effects of this were mainly seen in terms of the pre - packed foods.