So far he has also failed to deliver on the bottom line, with analysts predicting that M&S will report profits of between £430m and £460m, well down on the £1.1bn of 1998. In all, he has been criticised for his initial failure to grasp the depth of the problems M&S faced, and for not implementing a turnaround strategy sooner."He came in underestimating the problems facing the UK clothing business. He didn't have clothing experience and didn't realise the huge structural problems M&S had," says Roy Maconochie, a retail analyst with Investec Henderson Crosthwaite.Another analyst agrees: "I think he's struggled with the organisation of M&S, it's very bureaucratic He knows about supermarkets but ... implementing changes [in a clothing business] takes more time."The City broadly welcomed the departure of the chief executive, Peter Salsbury, but critics said Mr Vandevelde should have acted sooner.
It was not until September that the Belgian finally bit the bullet, axing Mr Salsbury along with two other directors.Even the appointment of respected Kingfisher executive Roger Holmes, as managing director of UK retail, did not engender universal praise, with critics questioning his understanding of the fashion sector. And Mr Vandevelde also came in for flak for his handling of M&S's pre-Christmas interim statement. Despite the poor start to the autumn/winter he took an upbeat line, maintaining M&S was on course to deliver a solid Christmas."Any clothing retailer worth their salt knows that if you start the season as disastrously as they had, there's no turnaround because the lead-time on ranges is a lot longer," says Mr Maconochie.By the end of January, Mr Vandevelde was eating his words, revealing a 5.1 per cent fall in like-for-like sales in the 16 weeks to 20 January the third Christmas sales drop in a row. Over much of the previous year Mr Vandevelde had strongly advocated the need for M&S to extend its international operations and develop its European business. But the disappointing Christmas figures in effect pushed him into his biggest U-turn. In March 2001, less than six months after talking about M&S's "big ambitions" in Europe, the M&S boss announced the closure of its continental business and the sale of the US operations, to focus on the core UK business.The initiative was billed as "the most important announcement in company history". It included plans to close the company's UK catalogue business, and dedicate more retail space to food, home furnishings and beauty products.Significantly Mr Vandevelde also promised to focus on delivering "classically stylish clothes" for the "over-thirties" age group, another departure from Mr Salsbury's target of younger audiences.These initiatives were welcomed by investors, with the decision to sell off half the UK property portfolio and return £2bn in cash to shareholders helping to boost shares.But there remains a feeling in certain quarters that Mr Vandevelde is failing to address fundamental questions, such as whether it is still appropriate to be a combined food and mass-market fashion retailer.
Critics see the moves as a last resort, rather than the culmination of a cohesive strategy. "The plans as announced have an air of desperation about them it's virtually a scorched-earth bid defence strategy," declares one analyst.The company's senior management has certainly been "scorched" none of the company's main board of two years ago remains. More recently Barry Morris, head of womenswear, decided to retire early.To turn around M&S's fortunes, Mr Vandevelde has been shopping for "outside" talent. Recently, Barry Stevenson of Kingfisher was appointed as retail director on M&S's UK board, with Yasmin Yusef, former Warehouse MD, drafted in as creative director for clothing. George Davies, who formerly designed for Asda and Next, has also joined in to design a new collection.However, it will take time for M&S to adjust to this structural upheaval. Meanwhile, it continues to lurch uneasily, with spring sales said to be lower than hoped for. "The key problem here is executing [the new strategy] quickly enough and with true conviction," says Richard Hyman, chairman of the retail consultancy, Verdict Research.
