Rose Won't Bloom Without a Pr Coup

Rumors abound of swingeing cost-cutting at M&S, where chief executive Stuart Rose is struggling to maintain his reputation as the turnaround king.

Since he fought off a bid from Philip Green four years ago, Rose has been feted as the man who revived the company's fortunes; he received a knighthood in recognition of his achievement in the New Year's honors list.

But shortly after, things went horribly wrong. M&S disclosed that sales had gone into reverse and the shares lost 20 per cent of their value.

You would have thought Rose had invested in US sub-prime mortgages, so steep was the decline in the stock price. But the fall in like-for-like sales that spooked the market was around 2 per cent, hardly life-threatening. What Rose needs to do now is to manage expectations with some skillful PR, which he failed to do in January, hence the punishment meted out by shareholders.

That brings me back to cost-cutting. If Rose can hack back costs and produce annual profits that hit £1bn for the first time in a decade, as well as boosting the bonus pot for staff, he will pull off a PR coup at the results presentation in May and show that, despite a fall in sales, M&S is anything but a spent force.