Business Report - Marks and Spencer

Marks and Spencer's new chief executive Marc Bolland on Tuesday unveiled plans to bolster the company's overall brand image while targeting sales of between £800m and £1bn from its international operations, excluding the Republic of Ireland over the next four years.

Bolland, who joined M&S in May, elaborated in detail his strategic review for the retailer whereby the company will increase capital expenditure to £850m to £900m over the next three years to fund the plans.

Bolland's vision involves ditching its Portfolio fashion brand, stopping electrical products sales, scaling back the number of non-M&S food lines from 400 to 100, and revamping the retailer's website.

The company also announced a new marketing strapline - 'Only at M&S' - with the aim to distance the retailer from the "crowded, low-margin" supermarket-dominated part of the food market.Further, the company will embark on an overseas expansion drive to reduce its "dependency on the UK economic cycle".

As part of the online growth, M&S will stop using Amazon as its online partner in 2013 and build and manage its own new platform for www.marksandspencers.com.

Bolland revealed his ambitious plans as M&S reported that pretax profit rose 17 per cent to £348.6m in the six months to October with overall sales rising 5.4 per cent to £4.56bn. Its interim dividend increased 12.7 per cent to 6.2p.The company also announced a new marketing strapline - 'Only at M&S' - with the aim to distance the retailer from the "crowded, low-margin" supermarket-dominated part of the food market

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