Marks & Spencer (M&S) will look to expand into India according to its CEO Marc Bolland.
Speaking at last week’s IGD Convention, Bolland said the upmarket retailer would focus on India ahead of China due to its ‘close ties to Britain and rich Commonwealth history.’
The M&S boss spoke of the challenges UK retailers face when expanding into China, admitting that M&S currently has a 'question mark' over its business model in the country.
“I believe China is a big part of UK retail and its future growth, but its marketplace seems to only embrace high end luxury or low value products and everything in-between will find it hard to compete,” explained Bolland.
Bolland also discussed how the retailer has grown since his appointment in May 2010 and his plans to improve its multi-channel marketing and international sales.
“We’ve recruited multilingual employees at the very top level in order to improve our links to the international marketplace, and there is now in-store technology in a large proportion of our UK stores,” said Bolland.
As part of its expansion, Bolland confirmed the retailer is now opening two stores a week in the UK and is set to launch 10 new international websites, each tailored to local currencies, by the end of the year.
