The Impact of Brexit on Company Operation in Mark&Spencer UK

This research aims to identify the influence of Brexit on Mark&Spencer UK's operation and business activity. It examines areas of failure, current trends and competition, and models of analysis such as SWOT and PESTLE. The study recommends that the company should focus on expanding its business globally, diversifying its labor, and adopting digital technologies.

The impact of Brexit on
company operation in
Mark&Spencer UK

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The reason behind conducting this research is to identify the influence of Brexit on the
operation activity of company, With this project, an area of failure, current trends and
competition and model of analysis is conducted in order to fulfil the need and requirement of
project.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................................7
DATA COLLECTION APPROACH .............................................................................................8
RESEARCH LIMITATION............................................................................................................9
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION......................................................................................................9
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Research aim:
“To identify the influence of Brexit on the company's operation and business activity”. A
study on Marks and Spencer
Objectives:
 To determine the impact of Brexit on the overall performance and growth of business
 To identify the Areas of Failures which are faced by Marks and Spencer at the time of
Brexit
 To examine the current trends and competition in the period of Brexit and its influence on
the operation activity of Marks and Spencer
 To determine the different models which helps in analysing the company's health
Research Questions:
 What is the impact of Brexit on the overall performance and growth of business?
 What are the Areas of Failures which are faced by Marks and Spencer at the time of
Brexit?
 What are the current trends and competition in the period of Brexit and its influence on
the operation activity of Marks and Spencer?
 Determine the different models which help in analysing the company's health?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Areas of Failure
Interruption in the supply chain:
It is considered as the major impact of Brexit that company faces on the business in the
market as it affects the business operation and supply chain. Brexit has created a great effect on
the functioning of the business as the prices of material has increased which is needed for
manufacturing, processing and supplying different variety of products and services (Johnson and
Haug, 2021). The company has generally stockpiled the things before the advent of Brexit in the
economy for skipping from the charge of tariff for importing European Union products. For
continuing and maintaining positive and healthy relationship between UK and EU, it is important
to provide transparency in case of any change in the rate of tariffs.
Reduced rate of EU employees:

Reduced rate of EU employees is considered as another main challenge that company
face Marks and Spencer at the time of Brexit. The Brexit situation has affected the employees
adversely because of the end on the freedom of movement of goods between UK and EU.
Because of this condition, the business can not only depend on cheap labour for work and the
company has to invest more in present working employees so that work with more confidence
and motivation.
Current trends and opportunities
Adopting digitalization:
Digitalization is considered as one of the most important trend and competition during
the times of Brexit. Adoption of the digital technology helps in reducing the impact and burden
of Brexit in the company. It helps in providing more stress free and cost effective way of running
the operations of the business in a more significant manner during the tough and terrible times of
Brexit.
Abroad market:
Abroad market is another trend and competition during the time of Brexit which
company considers in order improving the growth and profitability. This helps the company in
exporting products and services in the abroad market so that they can expand their reach and able
to earn more growth and profit in the highly competitive business market (Ford, 2016).
Model of Analysis
SWOT Analysis
Strength:

The strength of Marks and Spencer is that it has strong reputation in market due to which
they attract more and more customer towards the brand. Brexit has influenced the performance
and productivity of business but due to its strong presence in market, company attracts customers
and labours (Fellows, 2021). The brand also encourage creativity and innovation due to which
employees think out of box and also give their suggestions in order to improve the performance
and productivity of business. Marks and Spencer also encourages diversity by hiring people of
all gender, religion and ethnicities.
Weakness:
The weakness of company is that it popular brand due to which it is necessary for them to
protect their brand from misuse of fake imitation products. Other weakness which Marks and
Spencer has is poor scalability of supply chain (Masouros and Papadopoulos, 2016). Company is
offering its products and services at various countries but they are unable to scale up their supply
chain for delivering to all location globally.
Opportunity:
The opportunity which can be availed by Marks and Spencer is to expand their business
at global level in order to enhance the profitability and productivity of business.
Threat:
The threat which can be faced by Marks and Spencer is high competition. There are
various competitors of company that deals with same products and services at affordable price.
PESTLE Analysis
Political factor:
Marks and Spencer operates their business in many countries due to which it is essential
to follow the rules and regulation of the country in which they operate (Clarke and et. al., 2017)
(Crafts, 2022). The other political factor which has influenced the operation of Marks and
Spencer is Brexit as it results in loss of numerous free trade policies with suppliers of European.
Economic factor:
The economic outlet of UK is uncertain due to Brexit and COVID 19 which affects the
retail sales as customers are not spending their income on luxury clothes and products. Te brand
has also closed many outlets in UK market due to heavy loss.
Social Factor:

It is essential for company to attract more and more customer towards the brand by
offering them products at affordable price. Company must also focus on offering latest and
trendy products and services to its consumers.
Technological Factor:
Marks and Spencer adopts latest and advanced technology in order to gain competitive
advantage. The company has implement AI technology and Robotics in order to ease their work
and offer better customer service (Jain and Jindal, 2020).
Legal Factor:
It is necessary for Marks and Spencer to keep up to date with new legislation and laws
and also ensure that the law must be followed in order to stay away from any legal conflicts.
Environmental Factor:
Marks and Spencer have its own Green policy which is known by the name Plan A. This
policy helps in reducing the negative impact from environment.

METHODOLOGY
Qualitative approach
Qualitative approach is a research method which is used by the investigator in order to
gather the information in appropriate manner. Through using qualitative approach, researcher
generally collects information by exploring variables and concepts (Yates and Leggett, 2016).
Qualitative approach is descriptive in nature and also it is expressed in terms of language.
Advantages:
The advantage of qualitative approach is that researcher can evaluate the subject matter
with greater detail. It is also based on human experience and observations and also investigator
gathers data on the basis of prediction.
Disadvantages:
The disadvantage of qualitative approach is that the information which is gathered are
subjective and also it creates findings that are valuable but is difficult to present (Azungah,
2018).
Quantitative approach
Quantitative approach is also a method through which researcher can accumulate and
gather the data in effective and efficient manner. By using quantitative approach, investigator
can gather numerical piece of information. The approach mainly deals with statistics and
numbers.
Advantages:
Quantitative approach helps researcher to reach higher number of sample size, they can
gather the data by reaching to more and more number of respondents. Investigator can also
collect information in quick manner due to which aims and objective of research can be
accomplished in particular time period.
Disadvantages:
By using quantitative approach, researcher may sometimes collects unusable information
due to randomisation. It is also an expensive method as compare to other method due to which
investigator requires huge cost and time.
For conducting this project, researcher has focuses on selecting qualitative approach as it
helps in collecting detailed information related to the topic.
Primary data

Primary data is one of the data collection method which helps investigator to gather the
relevant information in detailed manner. By using primary data method, researcher collects first
hand data in order to complete the research.
Advantages:
The advantages of using primary data is that it provides more accurate information to
researcher and also the privacy is maintained properly.
Disadvantages:
The disadvantage of implementing primary data is that it is time consuming process due
to which it becomes difficult to complete the research in effective and efficient manner.
Secondary data
Secondary data is other method of data collection which is used by the researcher in order
to gather already collected information which are available from other sources (Trinh, 2018).
Advantages:
Through using secondary data, researcher can save the time and also be more specific
while collecting information.
Disadvantages:
The disadvantage of secondary data is that it doesn't provide accurate information and
also data may be outdated.
The chosen data for this research is primary and secondary data as it helps in collecting
information from existing sources due to which investigation can be completed in significant
manner. For collecting the data survey strategy is chosen by framing the questionnaire. The
chosen number of respondents are 30 managers of Marks and Spencer in order to collect the
data.
DATA COLLECTION APPROACH
Data collection approach is a way through which investigator collects and analyse the
information in order to attain research aims and objective. There are various data collection
approaches which are used by the investigator in order to gather the relevant and reliable
information related to the current study. The different data collection approaches are surveys,
observation, online tracking, forms, interviews and many others. But with this research,
investigator is laying emphasis on secondary data due to which they have used books,
publication and articles as data collection approaches. Thus, these methods helps in collecting

information in effective and efficient manner and also investigator can complete the research in
accurate time period (Jiang and et. al., 2019). The use of secondary sources helps in improving
the understanding of the problem and also it provides a basis for comparison for the information
which is gathered by the investigator.
RESEARCH LIMITATION
While doing research in appropriate manner, researcher has faced certain problem which
becomes barrier and also influence the time of completion of research. Investigator has faced
issues related to the time, high cost and lack of resources. Researcher has also faced problems
related to lack of communication.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
It is being determined form the above information that company faces various issues and
challenges due to Brexit. The uncertain situation has influenced the way of working and its
profitability due to which it becomes difficult to attain competitive edge. Brexit has affected the
social and economic factor of nation which creates an impact on the income level of consumers.
Due to Brexit, company has faced severe loss due to disruption in supply chain, decrease in EU
workers, custom tariff and economic issues. Brexit has created positive as well as negative
impact on the performance and growth of business. The positive impact of Brexit are opportunity
for growth and less EU restriction (Postlethwaite, 2022). Current trend and competition at the
time of Brexit are digitalisation and expanding business in other countries in order to enhance the
performance and profitability of business. The models are also implemented for analysing the
financial health of company such as Swot analysis and Pestle analysis. Through analysing these
models, it is being identified that the strength of company is its strong presence in UK market. It
is important for an organisation to focus on reducing the weakness and threat as it can affects the
performance and productivity of business. Through conducting pestle analysis, it is being
determined that political and social factors creates a great impact on the functioning of business.
It is important to focus on understanding the rules and regulation of the country in which they are
operating so that they can stay away from legal issues and also run the business in smooth and
efficient manner (Ford, 2016). Marks and Spencer also focus on offering trendy and latest
fashion clothes to its customer in order to remain competitive and gain competitive edge in
market.

RECOMMENDATION
From the above information it is being recommended that organistaion must focus on
overcoming the negative impact due to Brexit as it can influence the performance and growth of
business. It is important for Marks and Spencer to expand their business at global level by
offering premium quality of goods and services to its customers at affordable price. They must
also focus on diversifying their labour and welcome the employees of different religion and
country. In order to attract more and more customers towards the brand, organisation must focus
on adopting digital technologies as it helps in reaching to maximum number of people in
effective and efficient manner.
CONCLUSION
It is being concluded from the above information that UK economy and businesses have
faced severe loss due to Brexit. It has created a great impact on the business performance and
productivity. The Brexit has created positive as well as negative influence on the productivity
and growth of business. It provides an opportunity to an organisation to expand their business in
appropriate manner. Through expanding business in overseas market, company can generate
more and more revenue and also attract maximum number of people towards the brand. It also
creates negative impact on UK business such as tariff for British exports, disruption in supply
chain and decrease in EU workers. Thus, in order to complete this investigation, researcher has
chosen qualitative information and secondary data method. Different sources are used for
gathering information in effective and efficient manner. The uncertainty of Brexit has influences
the income level of people due to which it becomes difficult to attract and retain customer.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Azungah, T., 2018. Qualitative research: deductive and inductive approaches to data
analysis. Qualitative research journal.
Clarke, H .D and et. al., 2017. Brexit. Cambridge University Press.
Crafts, N., 2022. Brexit and control of subsidies. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 38(1),
pp.154-164.
Fellows, G., 2021. How will Brexit impact the UK fashion industry?.
Ford, M., 2016. The effect of Brexit on workers' rights. King's Law Journal, 27(3), pp.398-415.
Ford, M., 2016. The impact of Brexit on UK labour law. International Journal of Comparative
Labour Law and Industrial Relations, 32(4).
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implications for trade, investment and mobility of people between India and UK.
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analysis of secondary data. In International Conference on Information (pp. 41-49).
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Johnson, J .E. and Haug, P., 2021. Modifications to global supply chain management strategies
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Masouros, P. and Papadopoulos, T., 2016. The Impact of Brexit on UK Company Law. Eur.
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Postlethwaite, S., 2022. Investigating creative processes and pedagogy in the UK: Fashion
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Trinh, Q. D., 2018, April. Understanding the impact and challenges of secondary data analysis.
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