JON REES: Spare a thought for poor Marks & Spencer boss Marc Bolland

• e-mail

It’s hard not to feel a little sympathy for Marc Bolland, the embattled chief executive of Marks & Spencer, who is set to face the City this week with another set of disappointing figures.

The store, more than any other, is the bedrock brand of the British high street on a geographical scale that even rivals such as John Lewis and Debenhams simply cannot match.

It also has a core of retail investors – ordinary people who put their faith and money in its hands – who have stuck with it loyally through the worst of times.

Strategy: Marc Bolland is set to face the City this week with another set of disappointing figures

Bolland will put a brave face on the fall in profits – and he does have some grounds for optimism: it is a less precipitate profit fall than last year, after all.

The company’s latest clothes collection has been well-received by the fashion press and its advertising finally looks to be on the right track. Indeed, its food-advertising campaign has had the nation licking its lips. 

Nor can Bolland’s expected excuse about the unseasonably warm weather be lightly dismissed – until now it has been shorts-and-T-shirt weather at a time when M&S, like every other retailer, is stocked with jumpers and overcoats.

It has so far failed to match John Lewis’s success with its online offering – John Lewis’s mastery of the click-and-collect concept was one of the wonders of its Christmas triumph last year.

Though M&S’s online site suffered the indignity of a relaunch earlier this year, it is finally able to bear comparison with its rivals.

In his fifth year in charge, Bolland must prove that all his work under the bonnet of the business will benefit his patient, faithful shareholders. Bolland just needs a little bit of luck – and a cold snap.

The US Federal Reserve has stopped the biggest money-printing programme in history, after pumping $3.5trillion (£2.1trillion) into the American economy by buying government bonds from private investors.

That money – and the £375billion from the Bank of England which has been used to the same end in the UK – has played a large part in keeping the world afloat since the 2008 crisis.

Across the Channel, the European Central Bank’s reluctance to do the same thing has contributed to a fearful downward spiral of slow growth and deflation.

Thank goodness for the falling price of oil, which is down from $115 a barrel in June to just $85.

Lower oil prices may be bad for oil companies but they are good for growth and our European neighbours need all the help they can get right now.