Today Marks and Spencer is one of the best-known UK retailers of clothes, food, gifts and goods for the home. They also provide financial services. The group owns 303 stores with over 60,000 employees in the UK and 13,000 overseas. However, Marks and Spencer started very small.

In 1884 Michael Marks started selling in a market in Leeds. He was a Polish refugee, and because his English was very limited he decided to keep things simple and sell everything at the same price, His slogan was "Don't ask the price: it's a penny." He gave his customers excellent value for money and his business grew. Ten years later he formed a partnership with Tom Spencer. They had the good idea of buying goods directly from manufacturers instead of from wholesalers. This meant that they could buy them at a cheaper price. By 1926 the business had become big enough to become Marks and Spencer, a public limited company.

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