MARKS & SPENCER, it seems, has stumbled upon a veritable crock of gold in Ireland. After the Far East, its Irish business is now the fastest growth area within the international retail chain, with its shops in Dublin and Cork among its biggest earners in Europe.
Today, Marks & Sypencer takes up prime position in the former Brown Thomas building in Dublin, under the control of Mr Geoff Rowbotham, general manager in Ireland.
It is now more than 18 years since Marks & Spencer opened its first shop in Dublin's Mary Street. Less than 10 years later a second shop was opened in Grafton Street and the group also went into business in Cork. Over that time, Mr Rowbotham says Marks & Spencer has spent a lot of time listening to and learning about its customers, an exercise which he believes has contributed to its success to date.
"Marks & Spencer has not always been so successful here. We've had to spend a lot of time learning about the Irish marketplace. You can't just come in arrogantly and think you know about it. After 18 years we think we have a good idea about what our customers want," he says.
"We've had to go through bad times as well as good times, while taking a long-term view that we want to develop our business here. At the end of the day we're only shopkeepers. We'll only be successful if we can deliver top quality goods at the right price."
Throughout its three stores, Mr Rowbotham says its clothing, food and household goods lines are specially tailored to Irish customer needs.
"While customers largely tend to have the same characteristics throughout the world, it is important for a retailer to respect local differences."
In general, Mr Rowbotham says its fastest selling lines tend to be the same in Paris, London or Dublin, with some things selling particularly well here. In Ireland for instance, Marks and Spencer sandwiches sell in huge quantities daily, while sales of men's suits and women's clothes are also very strong.
To provide such a wide range under its St Michael label, Marks & Spencer sources its products from all over the world and is keen to include more Irish companies in its supplier base, according to Mr Rowbotham. This year, he says the group sources more than £300 million worth of textiles and food products from 23 companies in Northern Ireland and the Republic. Most of the Irish suppliers are based in the food industry, producing goods for sale in Marks & Spencer's Irish and European retail outlets.
"We will source the best product in the world, from wherever that may be. So, for example, we buy silk from the Far East, while on the food side we sell Irish salmon throughout all of our European shops."
Mr Rowbotham says the group recognises that it is very important to build its Irish supplier base as it develops its business here and it will continue to seek out new products which could be sold throughout Marks & Spencer's 628 stores worldwide. Most of this growth is likely to be on the food side, where Irish companies have proved themselves to be particularly strong internationally, he believes.
With its three shops estimated to be turning over sales worth more than £120 million a year, the group is well pleased with its performance, but deafly sees even greater potential for its business here.
Last week, it unveiled an ambitious five-year £65 million investment plan to expand its chain to include seven shops in the Republic. Over that period, the group says it will open new stores in Galway and Limerick, in addition to two new out-of-town shops - one at Quarryvale in west Dublin and one on the south side.
This is in addition to the £40 million revamp of the old Brown Thomas building, a £3 million expansion of its Cork store and the expansion of its Mary Street store through a mall link to the new Jervis Street Shopping Centre.
"Galway and Limerick present superb opportunities for us and we would love to be there as soon as we can," Mr Rowbotham says. "We have to wait for the right location to come along, and while we would like that to happen within the next five years, it might take longer." The group will be considering both city centre and out-of-town locations in Galway and Limerick. If the rapid growth of its Cork shop continues it may also have to look for another outlet there, he adds.
Geoff Rowbotham stresses that it will not compromise the location in any of its new centres just to be there sooner. "You can see that in Grafton Street. We never had any intention of being in any building other than the Brown Thomas or Switzer building, even though we could have had to wait another five years for that site to come on the market," he says.
As well as expanding its shopping outlets, Marks & Spencer has also extended its trading hours to include late-night shopping a couple of nights a week, as well as Sunday opening hours at its Grafton Street shop. The move to give customers greater flexibility has paid off handsomely, according to Mr Rowbotham, with more and more shopping now being done outside of normal trading hours.
In line with trends in Britain, Mr Rowbotham expects to see strong growth in the amount of business being done during extended opening hours. In this regard, Marks & Spencer has secured the co-operation of its staff, who, through their various trade unions have sanctioned an agreement which allows the company to trade virtually when it wants. Mr Rowbotham says this was achieved in partnership with the unions and is working successfully.
As a growing number of British multiples flock to join Marks & Spencer in the main Irish cities, Mr Rowbotham says it shows that Ireland has benefitted considerably from being so open to change.
"We should be proud and privileged to think that many of the world's top retailers want to bring their businesses here and to provide major employment."
