Mark and Spencer, which became a limited company in 1903 in Manchester, Britain, emerged as one of the world’s largest retail companies.
At the end of the twentieth century, it employed 68,000 people, had 286 stores, several factories producing for the stores in Britain and served 13 million shoppers with clothing, shoes, underwear, furniture and various homeware items and food, including 85 million sandwiches sold weekly in 2000.
Michael Marks, the son of a Jewish tailor in Grodno, escape from the bloody Russian pogroms of 1881, arrived in England the following year.
He became a peddler around Leeds. Since he did not speak a word of English, he put a sign in his tray: “Don’t ask price, everything is a penny.” This turned out to be the key to his success.
In a few years, he opened his first M. Marks Penny Bazaar, and soon he had a dozen market stall in Yorkshire and Lancashire.
He looked for a partner to enable him to expand and found Tom Spencer, who invested his savings into business and became a half owner.
The family lived above the store but by 1903, when company went public, they owned thirty six market bazaar and shops, including three in London.
In 1908, Tom Spencer had already retired, and Marks died at the age of forty seven.
Marks and Spencer
