New M&S boss Steve Rowe has slated the legacy of predecessor Marc Bolland, saying that the high street retailer has been "giving customers too many reasons not to shop with us".
Mr Rowe set out a series of reasons why shoppers were unhappy with stores and clothing ranges and said that from now on it would no longer be "slavishly following catwalk trends".
The chief executive set out the criticisms in the group's annual report - which also revealed that Mr Bolland's annual bonus had climbed 4% to £622,000, as first revealed by Sky News.
It was roughly a third of the maximum bonus he could have achieved.
Mr Bolland left in April after years of struggling clothing sales, to be replaced by long-serving M&S executive Mr Rowe, who began his career in its Croydon store at the age of 15.
Mr Rowe has already said that he will cut prices and put more staff in stores as he sets out to revive general merchandise sales, which remain "not satisfactory".
In a strategic update published in the company's annual report, he said: "We have a lot more to do. We have been giving customers too many reasons not to shop with us.
"They tell us that we have not got the balance between fashion and style right and that we don't offer enough choice.
"They say that we are sometimes too expensive and that our stores are too difficult to shop.
"We will put increased emphasis on contemporary styling rather than slavishly following catwalk trends, and will focus on innovations that are genuinely useful to our customers."
Last month, M&S reported an 18% fall in pre-tax profits to £489m for the year to the start of April as one-off costs relating to its ailing international business and insurance mis-selling weighed on its bottom line - though underlying earnings stripping out these charges rose.
The company's annual report showed that Mr Bolland's total pay for the year fell 3% to £2.04m as his performance share plan awards fell.
It revealed that the value of his annual bonus was reduced from 80% of salary to 64% of salary to take into account the company’s "mixed" performance over the year.
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