New Spin On Redundancy!

[Mutley]

My point was that the company is still healthy and doing well. Still making and forecast to make huge profits. In light of the economic downturn their sales downturn was tiny. And yet they still chose to turn 780 peoples lives upside down. We don't need a beginners guide to economics. Profit is good. Greed is not.

 

I don't understand what point you wish to make Mutley. If you can understand basic economics then you must surely recognise that the need to make profit is the driving force behind Marks and Spencer. If get rid of staff the reason is about saving money, and thus either maintaining or improving profits.

 

If you are happy living in a system where profit making is the motivator for the production and offering of services then you really cannot complain when people lose their jobs and even when things go really tits up. Companies (specifically, the people running and owning them) protect their own interests.

 

My point is basically what I said - Profit is good. Greed is not. All companies strive to make a profit and rightly so. But at some point it becomes greedy to the extent it becomes ugly. £600m not enough profit?

 

Anyway it's a bullshit announcement to placate the stock market following their 1.5% drop in overall sales and to allow the directors to justify their positions by showing that they're doing something about it. Smoke and mirrors. M&S have over 600 stores in the UK alone. If they wanted to reduce the workforce by 780 then why not let it happen by natural wastage over the next few months from the 75,000 staff they have - and do it quietly. Why the big announcement? To show the Directors are doing something about it. M&S claim they'll save £1m over a year with the redundancies. An insignificant amount when you consider even M&S in the IOM were taking £1m every 2 days in the run up to Xmas. Within a year I bet M&S will report improved profits and new jobs as the downturn eases. So in the meantime they're playing with peoples lives to make the boardroom look effective.

 

It does nothing to help confidence in current times - which is mostly fueled by a lot of inaccurate reporting and unnecessarily negative talk from "experts" and commentators.

 

I'm rambling here. Night!

[thesultanofsheight]

Within a year I bet M&S will report improved profits and new jobs as the downturn eases.

 

I bet they won't. M & S are indicative of the current breed of retailers who do not understand retail. They might have had a few flash "20% off" days but sales were still down in December. I wonder why? Maybe because everything on sale was basically just crappy dead stock they wanted to clear. If sales are that poor here's a great idea - why don't you discount the stuff that people actually want to buy.

 

I would be happy to buy a few new suits but as they have not discounted them by even 1p I won't be buying till they do. You read the news that says that retailers are desparate but I can't believe that they are that desparate to sell stuff if they are not discounting the stuff people actually want to buy. Its time retail businessess recognised that turnover is king and the less time stuff stays on the racks the better their cashflow and turnover is.

[La_Dolce_Vita]

My point is basically what I said - Profit is good. Greed is not. All companies strive to make a profit and rightly so. But at some point it becomes greedy to the extent it becomes ugly. £600m not enough profit?

 

Anyway it's a bullshit announcement to placate the stock market following their 1.5% drop in overall sales and to allow the directors to justify their positions by showing that they're doing something about it. Smoke and mirrors. M&S have over 600 stores in the UK alone. If they wanted to reduce the workforce by 780 then why not let it happen by natural wastage over the next few months from the 75,000 staff they have - and do it quietly. Why the big announcement? To show the Directors are doing something about it. M&S claim they'll save £1m over a year with the redundancies. An insignificant amount when you consider even M&S in the IOM were taking £1m every 2 days in the run up to Xmas. Within a year I bet M&S will report improved profits and new jobs as the downturn eases. So in the meantime they're playing with peoples lives to make the boardroom look effective.

 

It does nothing to help confidence in current times - which is mostly fueled by a lot of inaccurate reporting and unnecessarily negative talk from "experts" and commentators.

 

I'm rambling here. Night!

 

But you kinda give the impression that companies should be nice and not get greedy. But they have no reason to be nice and can do what they want. £1million is a big saving, so they get rid of the staff. No level of compassion or thought about the people need enter into it, why should it from the perspective of the people doing the 'firing'?

 

£600m is NOT enough profit. Because profit and greed go hand in hand. The point about profit is make more wealth.

[Sebrof]

Within a year I bet M&S will report improved profits and new jobs as the downturn eases.

 

I bet they won't. M & S are indicative of the current breed of retailers who do not understand retail. They might have had a few flash "20% off" days but sales were still down in December. I wonder why? Maybe because everything on sale was basically just crappy dead stock they wanted to clear. If sales are that poor here's a great idea - why don't you discount the stuff that people actually want to buy.

 

I would be happy to buy a few new suits but as they have not discounted them by even 1p I won't be buying till they do. You read the news that says that retailers are desparate but I can't believe that they are that desparate to sell stuff if they are not discounting the stuff people actually want to buy. Its time retail businessess recognised that turnover is king and the less time stuff stays on the racks the better their cashflow and turnover is.

 

It's not about turnover and cash flow (though the latter is obviously important).

 

One of the reasons for the dotcom crash in 2000 was that people forgot the SOLE reason for being in business - profit.

 

Any fool can sell something by discounting it. But discounts wipe out profit, and if a company doesn't make profits it will run out of cash and go to the wall.

 

As a shareholder, nothing worries me more than seeing sales being achieved through discounting. It's a downhill path - as you yourself recognise. Once customers start to expect discounts, they'll hold off buying until the discounts appear.

 

S