Part of the scenery...

This isn't the only wet and miserable retail park in the country that is watched over by M&S. In fact there are over 700 stores in the UK alone. In 1998, it became the first British retailer to make a pre-tax profit of over £1 billion, though a few years later it plunged into a crisis which lasted for several years.

Its genesis was with an immigrant Jew who was driven by good business sense and enterprise.

The company was founded by a partnership between Michael Marks, a Belarusian Jew from Slonim (Marks was born into a Polish-Jewish family, he was a Polish refugee living in the Russian Empire (now in Belarus)), and Thomas Spencer, a cashier from Yorkshire. On his arrival in England, Marks worked for a company in Leeds, called Barran, which employed refugees. In 1884 he met Isaac Jowitt Dewhirst whilst looking for work. Dewhirst lent Marks £5 which he used to establish his Penny Bazaar on Kirkgate Market, in Leeds. Dewhirst also taught him a little English. Dewhirst's cashier was Tom Spencer, an excellent book-keeper; he acquired a lively and intelligent second wife, Agnes, who helped improve Marks's English. In 1894, when Marks acquired a permanent stall in Leeds' coveted market, he invited Spencer to become his partner.

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