More milestones for Marks & Spencer. After overtaking Waitrose on food and drink sales last year, it’s moved past the Co-op. It’s arguably a symbolic achievement more than a literal one. At the start of the final quarter included in the Worldpanel data [52 w/e 13 July], both M&S and The Co-op were hit by major cyberattacks. And there has been much comparison as to how the pair have handled and been impacted by the crisis. The reputation of M&S has arguably been hit harder. And while that’s partly a reflection on its pre-eminence and its momentum as a brand, there has also been criticism of its crisis comms, including CEO Stuart Machin’s perceived dismissal of the cyberattack’s impact on customers by calling it a bump in the road, not a crisis.
In any event, M&S food and drink sales certainly suffered in that final quarter, albeit not as much as clothing. And crucially not as much as the Co-op. While M&S admitted to “pockets of limited availability” in Food Halls as it took systems offline in April, it maintained and in some cases increased orders to suppliers (and sought out alternative supplies, including Tesco) to ensure shortages were minimised despite being blindsided. In contrast, Co-op suffered severe and widespread availability issues over a number of weeks as it not only shut down parts of its IT estate but cancelled supplier orders to minimise waste and preserve cash. Neither have talked about these aspects of their responses to the cyberattacks, nor have they been reported. But they are known.
There was a further symbolic milestone this week for M&S too as it won our weekly Grocer 33 mystery shopping competition for the first time. Appearing as a guest retailer, its recently refurbished Fosse Park store ranked the best supermarket in Leicester. It acts as a further reminder not only of its consistently high standards but its increasing credibility as a nationwide, full-shop grocer. And while some may mock how it stacked up against its full-service supermarket rivals in the complementary price comparison survey, if M&S, with prices 22% higher than the cheapest supermarket, can still be growing share, and pulling in more punters, that warrants not mockery but respect.
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