M&S gearing up to face Christmas test

London Briefing: As 1960s icon Twiggy and a bevy of beautiful models look on, Dame Shirley Bassey belts out her Goldfinger-style version of Let's Get the Party Started.

The lavish 90-second James Bond-themed TV advertisement, first aired last week during the primetime Coronation Street commercial break, signalled the launch of Marks & Spencer's Christmas campaign.

Over the next month and a half, the stores group will spend millions of pounds persuading shoppers to part with their cash. M&S shareholders are already in party mood, having just seen their shares break through the 700p barrier to a new all-time peak as the group delighted the City of London with a near one-third surge in profits.

At £405 million (€603 million), first-half profits from the group are at their highest level for nine years.

If the Christmas campaign works, M&S looks on course to reach the £1 billion mark for the full year for the first time since 1997.

The figures are a tribute to the recovery plan instigated by chief executive Stuart Rose, who took over 2½ years ago when M&S was under assault from billionaire Sir Philip Green.

Although many in the City were unconvinced at the time, M&S shareholders stayed loyal and rejected the 400p a share offer. They have been rewarded not only with a surge in the share price but last week also saw a one-third hike in their interim dividend payment.

Having put expansion plans on hold when he first arrived, Mr Rose now believes the group is ready to step up its store opening programme. He sees space expanding by as much as 20 per cent over the next five years as the group increases its presence both in the high street and out-of-town. He plans to relocate a number of stores to better sites and to increase the space of others.

Mr Rose also sees opportunities to "stretch" the M&S brand into new products and services, such as its recent move into electrical goods, and to broaden the business both at home and overseas.

The resurgence at M&S comes as other retailers - notably Bhs and Arcadia, owned by his adversary Sir Philip - have been struggling against fierce competition, particularly from low-cost retailers such as Primark and the supermarkets.

However Mr Rose, although clearly delighted with the figures, is still refusing to say the corner has finally been turned at M&S. Since he was parachuted in back in 2004, he has always insisted that this Christmas will be the real test.

Most of the omens look good - the scarlet "Magicwear" hold-it-all-in dress modelled by the Welsh diva Dame Shirley in the TV advert is flying off the shelves, despite its £150 (€223) price tag.

Such a campaign does not come cheap, however. Although the group will not say exactly how much the Christmas advertising blitz is costing, its figures

last week revealed that marketing and related costs jumped by more than 25 per cent over the first half, to £59.6 million, and the full-year figure will be even higher.

Farepack fiasco

Sticking with the Christmas theme, the story at hampers group Farepak is a far from festive tale. The full nightmare of the collapse of the Christmas savings company has become apparent in recent weeks, with as many as 150,000 families having lost their entire annual savings.

Farepak collected money from clients every month, as a way of saving for Christmas. In November and December, customers would be issued with vouchers which they would then redeem at some of Britain's largest retailers for their Christmas presents.They could also buy hampers of food from the group.

The collapse was triggered when Farepak found it had to pay for the vouchers up-front, rather than at the end of the year as it has done in the past. Farepak's parent company, European Home Retail, was forced to increase its borrowings, but bankers HBOS refused to extend sufficient cash to the group. The overdraft was called in - and the administrators swiftly followed.

The row over just who was responsible for the collapse escalates by the day. The company blames HBOS, saying it blocked numerous rescue proposals and refused to "ring fence" customers' cash.

It claims that an extra overdraft of just £1.5 million would have been enough to keep it afloat through Christmas.

Customers blame the company and its well-paid directors for continuing to take their savings even after it became apparent there were serious problems.

The collapse of Farepak exposes a glaring hole in the regulatory framework. Such saving schemes offer clients no interest and as such are not covered by the rules that govern financial and other consumer services.

The real tragedy is that these schemes tend to be used by the poorest people; those who prefer to lock their savings away in a Christmas club where they cannot be tempted to take out the cash, rather than in a bank. Many of the Farepak customers were without bank accounts.

Now they are unlikely to see a single penny of their savings returned. Although a support fund has been established, with donations from retailers such as M&S and Tesco, as well as HBOS, it will cover only a fraction of the estimated £40 million losses.

As the recriminations continue, the government is now considering tightening regulations relating to savings clubs. But for the customers of Farepak, facing a bleak Christmas this year, it is too late.

Fiona Walsh writes for the Guardian newspaper in London