CSR - £20m extra annual profit for M&S from Plan A

What a timely update! M&S has just announced an update on the progress of Plan A - its sustainability strategy. Lots of details about the extent of progress against the many targets and objectives set by M&S. However, the headline news is that the overall financial benefit of Plan A has increased to £70 million per year; up from the £50m profit effect which many students will have seen ex CEO Sir Stuart Rose mention in this video clip.

Where has this profit improvement arisen? Well, more efficient use of energy in shops and distribution centres saved the most money in 2010-11, netting M&S an £13.5 million cost saving, followed by packaging reductions, which saved £11 million.

Plan A is the strategy which M&S intends will enable it to achieve its stated aim of becoming “the world’s most sustainable major retailer by 2015”. You can watch a really useful video with M&S’s new CEO Marc Bolland describing the next stages in Plan A here