M&S injects more style in clothing ranges

Marks and Spencer have injected dose of fashion to its ailing clothing collections. The high street giant's new clothing range has been carefully designed and sourced in strategy to help boost sales. The company said on Tuesday that its new

Autumn/Winter collection will put "quality and style back" into M&S clothing. With clothes sales down, analysts and investors were awaiting news of M&S's plans for this key arm of the business. The launch "will reassert our position as a leading, premium fashion retailer," M&S said.

Company to focus on quality and styleh

Chief executive Marc Bolland said the new fashion ranges, revealed at a catwalk show in central London, represented "a step in the right direction".

"We want to be very clear that this is a step-by-step approach," he said. "The team will keep on improving. What is important is the direction, and I am very confident that the direction is in style and in quality."

In April, M&S reported that sales in its general merchandise division, which includes clothing, fell 3.8 percent in the first three months of 2013, the seventh quarter in a row they have fallen.

Clothing, where the company still has an 11 percent share of UK womenswear, has been the weak spot in recent years, despite a raft of initiatives and appointments of new executives.

There has been criticism of M&S's basic ranges such as underwear and knitwear. The new ranges have much more of an emphasis on fashion "with a capital F", said new style director Belinda Earl.

The former boss of Debenhams and Jaeger, who joined M&S last summer, said: "There's more of a role than ever for us to lead in fashion and design."

Image: M&S AW13