The first crop of headlines along the lines of “has Marks & Spencer’s turnaround finally succeeded?” can be dated to about 2005. The struggle for relevance in the 21st century really has been going on that long. False dawns, relapses and various iterations of a “fix the basics” strategy has followed under multiple chief executives, most of whom thought they’d cracked it, but hadn’t.
It is why one should view the latest appearance of a mini-triumph – a return to the FTSE 100 index after a four-year absence – with a degree of scepticism. You never quite know with M&S. Context is also useful. Today’s share price of 224p looks nice against 127p in January, but the same price was first seen in 1987, according to Refinitiv’s data.
