LONDON, England

STALWART British food and clothing retailer Marks & Spencer (M &S) Group PLC outlined plans to expand its international presence as it reported a 6.8 per cent rise in half-year net profit yesterday.

New chief executive Marc Bolland said the company would initially focus on improving brands within the British business, but it was keen to become an international retailer to reduce its dependency on the domestic economic cycle.

The seller of goods from lingerie to flowers and champagne reported net profit of £260.2 million (US$421 million) for the six months to Oct 2, up from £224.3 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 5.4 per cent to £4.57 billion.

Bolland, who joined the company earlier this year from grocer chain Morrisons PLC, said that M&S plans to open more new stores and franchises in carefully selected overseas markets. It already has a strong presence in Turkey and the Czech Republic.

“Instead of ‘planting flags’, we aim to build a leadership position in priority markets,” the company said in a statement. “We will continue to build local leadership in core markets in this way.”

The London-based company will also set up tailored shopping websites for specific local markets from 2013.

Back home, Bolland said he planned to reduce the number of non-M&S products sold, boosting sales in homewares and rearranging the sometimes confusing layout of stores.

The company, which has been renowned for decades for selling only its own-brand food products, just recently introduced a number of other products to its stores in a bid to capture shoppers looking for name brands.

But in a reversal of that decision by former CEO Stuart Rose, Bolland said he will cut the range of non-M&S branded foodstuffs from 400 lines to 100, leaving products the company itself cannot replicate. However, he will add another 100 “distinctive international brands” which would be exclusive to M&S.

M&S shares were down 0.6 per cent at 410.6 pence in afternoon trade on the London Stock Exchange.

Hargreaves Lansdown equity analyst Keith Bowman said the new strategy comes with risks.

“The M&S brand has relied on an ageing customer base for some time now, with Mr Bolland hoping that he can excite younger fashion-orientated consumers,” Bowman said. “A move away from big-branded food products could diminish the potential to increase the company as the destination for the big weekly shop, while a slow pace of international growth might leave the door open for others in the meantime to build market share.”