Marks & Spencer is a British high-street chain selling womenswear, menswear, kidswear, lingerie and beauty, and it has traded in India since 2008. Its Myntra catalogue ran to 8,117 listings on 11 September 2026, at a median price of ₹1,999 — mid-market clothing, on the same shelf as H&M rather than above it.
Much of what a shopper needs is on the label, in the declaration block on each garment: on forty records read in full, it named factories in Bangladesh, India, China, Cambodia and Sri Lanka.
Marks & Spencer India is a joint venture, not a franchise: Marks & Spencer Group plc holds 51% and Reliance Retail Ventures Limited 49%, and both parents book it that way in their audited accounts. The Indian company is Marks and Spencer Reliance India Private Limited, CIN U51900MH2007PTC175711.
Across forty Myntra records read on 11 September 2026, 27 declared Bangladesh as country of origin, and the manufacturer line often named the factory itself.
On a 100-listing sounding the catalogue charged 75.5% of MRP, at a median ₹1,999.
Snapshot
- Founded
- The Indian company was incorporated on 5 November 2007 as Tapti Trading Private Limited; the joint venture was announced on 18 April 2008
- Founder
- No founder — the Indian business was set up as a joint venture, with Mark Ashman as its first chief executive
- Headquarters
- Registered office at Dhobi Talao, Mumbai; corporate office at DLF Cyber City, Gurugram
- Current owner
- Marks & Spencer Group plc 51%, Reliance Retail Ventures Limited 49%, on the split agreed in April 2008
- Category
- Apparel — womenswear, menswear, kidswear, lingerie and beauty
- Price band in India
- Median price ₹1,999 on Myntra, thermals ₹1,299 to ₹2,999 — mid-range on this site’s apparel bands
- Available in India
- Officially — own stores, marksandspencer.in and Myntra
Who answers for a Marks & Spencer garment
That block carries the maximum retail price inclusive of taxes, the country of origin, and the name and address of the manufacturer, packer or importer.
Forty Marks & Spencer records were read in full on Myntra on 11 September 2026. The manufacturer-or-importer line carried thirty different strings across them, and on six of the forty it was empty. The seller of record was Marks and Spencer Reliance India Private Limited on 24 of the 40.
A brand buying from many factories in several countries will show many manufacturer names, where a label sourcing from one domestic maker tends to show one.
| Forty records read, 11 September 2026 | Manufacturer or importer named | Country of origin |
|---|---|---|
| Marks & Spencer | 30 different strings; blank on 6 of 40 | Bangladesh 27, India 7, China 4, Cambodia 1, Sri Lanka 1 |
This page reports what the forty records said on 11 September 2026.
To the brand’s credit, many of those thirty strings are named factories — Epyllion Knitwears, FCI(BD), MAS — not a trading company standing in for one. Almost no clothing brand sold here tells a shopper which mill sewed the garment. This one does.
Who owns Marks & Spencer in India
This is settled, and settled three separate ways. Marks & Spencer Group plc’s own regulatory announcement of 18 April 2008 sets the equity split at 51% Marks & Spencer, 49% Reliance Retail and puts the initial investment at “up to £29m (in cash or in kind)”. Fourteen franchise stores, run until then by Planet Retail, carried on trading.
Reliance’s side is in Reliance Retail Ventures Limited’s audited standalone accounts, which carry two classes of shares in the Indian company at a combined ₹163 crore under the heading “In Equity Shares of Joint Venture” — the same figure at 31 March 2023, 2024 and 2025. The British side is in the Strategic Report for the 52 weeks to 28 March 2026, which carries the line “49% non-controlling interest share of India store closures £0.5m”. A company that consolidates a business and then deducts a 49% minority holds the other 51%.
- Tapti Trading Private LimitedIncorporated 5 November 2007, Mumbai
- Joint venture announced18 April 2008 — 51/49, up to £29m invested
- Marks and Spencer Reliance India Private LimitedCIN U51900MH2007PTC175711; seller of record today
- Still 51/49 in 2026Reliance books ₹163 crore; M&S deducts a 49% minority
One shell company, one announcement, one split that has not moved in eighteen years.
The board
Register mirrors read on 11 September 2026 differ on the exact board, so this page does not list it. They agree on a new managing director appointed in 2025 — matching what Marks & Spencer told shareholders that May: “the joint venture in India is being reset under new leadership”.
What the Indian company reports, and what the parent does not
The latest balance sheet on the register is for the year ended 31 March 2025, and the last annual general meeting was on 29 September 2025. The full filing sits behind paid databases.
One register mirror gives revenue of ₹1,550.73 crore for FY2025, the year to 31 March 2025, down 12% on the year before, and a second database shows net sales down 11.8% for the same year; both are database figures for the Indian company rather than the filed accounts. No profit or loss figure was read for any year, so this page prints none.
The British parent says more about India than most foreign owners, without publishing a number an Indian reader could use. India is one of only two businesses singled out in its auditor’s scoping, with its own materiality threshold — £5.0m in FY25, £5.5m in FY26 — and in its full-year results of 21 May 2025 it said owned sales were down 8.0%, driven by weak trading in India. Its reports read do not give a separate India revenue, profit or store count.
The store count, and what happened to it
- 200814 franchise stores carried into the joint venture
- 201336 stores, with around 80 targeted by 2016
- 201976 stores across 32 cities
- 2023The 100th store opens on Linking Road, Mumbai
- 2025More than 107 stores across 33 cities
- 2026Some Indian store closures recorded in the group’s accounts for the year to 28 March 2026
Store counts as reported at each date; no count newer than March 2025 has been published.
Press reports of March 2019, October 2023 and March 2025, and Marks & Spencer Group plc’s Strategic Report 2026.
The 107-store figure dates from 11 March 2025, and the group’s accounts for the year to 28 March 2026 record some Indian store closures. Read any count quoted today as dated March 2025.
What Marks & Spencer costs in India
A 100-listing sounding of the Myntra catalogue on 11 September 2026 found the brand charging 75.5% of MRP, with 70 of the 100 reduced and a median price of ₹1,999.
- Median price on Myntra
- ₹1,999
- Share of MRP actually charged
- 75.5%
- Listings reduced
- 70 of 100
- Checked on
- 11 September 2026
The shape matters as much as the level. Those hundred listings used only fifteen distinct MRPs between them, across twenty-seven discount rungs. That is price-point retailing — a few tickets, many reductions — not a price set garment by garment.
In May 2025 Marks & Spencer told shareholders the Indian joint venture was moving towards full-price trading. The Myntra figures above are a marketplace reading on one day, 11 September 2026, and may differ from pricing in the brand’s own stores.
For scale, H&M‘s Indian catalogue carried the same median MRP of ₹1,999 on 6 September 2026, at a median charged price of ₹1,699, and Uniqlo a median MRP of ₹1,990. This is priced among the foreign high-street names here, not above them.
No pound-to-rupee comparison appears here, because none could honestly be made: the British and Indian ranges cannot be matched garment for garment. Converting a British price into what a garment “should” cost here is a guess dressed as arithmetic.
What the reading gives instead is the origin mix. Of the forty records, 27 declared Bangladesh, 7 India, 4 China, 1 Cambodia and 1 Sri Lanka. These goods really are imported, so an import-cost argument is at least available here, unlike the foreign labels whose Indian stock is made in India. The landed cost and duty rate were not established.
What the claims rest on
The Indian homepage, read on 11 September 2026, says Marks & Spencer is “Committed to ethically sourced materials” and that every piece is “Crafted from ethically sourced cotton”. The group behind those claims runs a real apparatus for exactly that.
The Global Sourcing Principles of January 2023 bind supplier partners to the Ethical Trading Initiative Base Code, and make it a condition of working with Marks & Spencer “that we can publish details of factories used by our supplier partners”. The Ethical Audits Methodology of August 2022 requires “all of our first tier production sites” to have an annual audit to the two-pillar SMETA standard, by an independent third party. An interactive supplier map, built on the Open Supply Hub register, covers “100% first-tier manufacturing sites which produce M&S branded products”, and the 2026 ESG report puts 100% of clothing cotton through Better Cotton.
Those documents sit on the group’s corporate site. The Indian site’s footer, read on 11 September 2026, links to it through a general “Corporate site” link rather than to the sourcing pages directly.
Marks & Spencer publishes its sourcing principles, audit method and factory map on its corporate site.
One caution belongs beside the cotton figure, and it comes from the scheme itself. Better Cotton says that “when you see the BCI logo on a product, it doesn’t mean the product is made of Traceable (also known as Physical) BCI Cotton”. The 100% line is a volume commitment, not a statement about the shirt in your hand.
Cool Comfort and Heatgen
Two fabric technologies are sold here under trademarks. Cool Comfort is described on the product page as “breathable Cool Comfort™ technology that keeps you feeling fresh”, on a garment that is 83% polyamide and 17% elastane. Heatgen thermals, ₹1,299 to ₹2,999 on the Indian site, promise “superior warmth without adding bulk”.
The two pages, read on 11 September 2026, cite no tog rating, laboratory, industry standard or certification for either technology; they describe the benefit.
Who Marks & Spencer is actually for
At a median ₹1,999 this suits a shopper who wants plain, well-cut basics — shirts, trousers, knitwear, lingerie, thermals — and cares more about fit and fabric than about a season’s styling. Lingerie and thermals are the strongest reasons to walk into a store, since both are bought on fit.
It is a weaker fit for anyone chasing trend-led clothes at pace, where H&M sits at the same median, and for a budget shopper. Reliance Trends, run from inside the group holding 49% of this joint venture, charged a median ₹599 on Ajio on 6 September 2026. One side of that group sells at ₹599 and the other at ₹1,999.
Reputation and record
The Advertising Standards Council of India’s published complaint outcomes showed nothing naming Marks & Spencer or its Indian company when read on 11 September 2026, on a search returning findings against other advertisers the same day. The council is self-regulatory, and its findings are not law.
The Indian site’s terms name the company selling the goods, Marks and Spencer Reliance India Private Limited, with its Mumbai and Gurugram addresses and a grievance officer. Both parents’ audited accounts document the joint venture, and the declarations name real factories.
Buying Marks & Spencer in India
Read the seller line before you read the brand name
On the forty records read, the joint venture company, Marks and Spencer Reliance India Private Limited, was the seller of record on 24. Check which seller a listing names before you buy.
Read the manufacturer line
Six of forty records showed that field empty online. In a showroom the same block is printed on the garment label — ask to see it, and read who is named before you pay.
Treat MRP as one of fifteen tickets
A hundred listings used fifteen distinct MRPs and twenty-seven reductions, so a price is a ticket plus a rung. Wait a rung if the garment is not urgent.
Judge Heatgen by the fabric
The thermals page cites no tog rating, laboratory or standard. Handle the fabric and compare weights before you buy.
Ring the store before you travel
The published count of 107 dates from March 2025. Confirm the branch is open before you travel.
Common questions
Who owns Marks & Spencer in India?
Marks and Spencer Reliance India Private Limited, a joint venture 51% owned by Marks & Spencer Group plc and 49% by Reliance Retail Ventures Limited. The split was announced on 18 April 2008 and both parents still book it that way — Reliance carries the holding at ₹163 crore, and Marks & Spencer deducts a 49% minority in its 2026 accounts.
Is Marks & Spencer India a franchise?
No. There is equity on both sides, recorded in both parents’ audited accounts, which is what makes it a joint venture rather than a licence or a franchise. Before 2008 the brand did trade here through franchise stores run by Planet Retail; fourteen of those were carried into the joint venture.
Where are Marks & Spencer clothes made?
Of forty Indian marketplace records read on 11 September 2026, 27 declared Bangladesh, 7 India, 4 China, 1 Cambodia and 1 Sri Lanka. Unusually, many of the declarations name the actual factory rather than a trading company.
Is Marks & Spencer expensive in India?
It is mid-market. The median price on its Myntra catalogue on 11 September 2026 was ₹1,999, with 75.5% of MRP being collected across a 100-listing sounding. H&M carried the same ₹1,999 median MRP five days earlier and Uniqlo ₹1,990, so the three sit together rather than apart.
Does Heatgen have a warmth rating?
The Indian thermals page, read 11 September 2026, cites no tog rating, laboratory, certification or industry standard for Heatgen, and the Cool Comfort product page cites none either.
How many Marks & Spencer stores are there in India?
The last published figure is more than 107 stores across 33 cities, from 11 March 2025. Marks & Spencer Group plc’s accounts for the year to 28 March 2026 record some Indian store closures, and no newer count has been published, so read 107 as the March 2025 figure.
How we research and verify brand audits: our methodology.
References
- Marks & Spencer brand catalogue, Myntra — read 11 September 2026: the 8,117-listing catalogue; a 100-listing sounding giving 75.5% of MRP charged, 70 reduced, a ₹1,999 median, 15 distinct MRPs and 27 discount rungs; and 40 product records read in full for the declared manufacturer, country of origin and net quantity.
- Marks & Spencer Group plc, regulatory announcement, 18 April 2008 — the 51/49 split, the “up to £29m” initial investment, the 50-store plan, the former name Tapti Trading Private Limited, the 14 Planet Retail franchise stores and Mark Ashman as first chief executive.
- Reliance Retail Ventures Limited, standalone financial statements 2024-25 — the two classes of shares in Marks and Spencer Reliance India Private Limited carried at ₹163 crore under the heading “In Equity Shares of Joint Venture”, unchanged across three year-ends.
- Marks & Spencer Group plc, Strategic Report 2026 — the “49% non-controlling interest share of India store closures £0.5m” line, and the accounting policy deducting non-controlling interests for the India business.
- Company register mirror, read 11 September 2026 — CIN U51900MH2007PTC175711, incorporation on 5 November 2007 and the Mumbai registered office. Cited as a mirror of the register, not the register itself.
- Company register mirror stating its own update date of 8 September 2026 — the balance sheet filed for the year ended 31 March 2025, the annual general meeting of 29 September 2025 and the 2025 managing director appointment.
- Company register mirror, read 11 September 2026 — FY2025 revenue of ₹1,550.73 crore, described as down 12% year on year.
- Company database profile, read 11 September 2026 — net sales down 11.8% for 2025, corroborating the direction of the revenue fall.
- Marks & Spencer Group plc, full-year results, 21 May 2025 — “the joint venture in India is being reset under new leadership”, the move towards full-price trading, and weak trading in India.
- Marks and Spencer plc, financial statements 2025 — “ongoing challenging trading conditions in owned stores in India” and the 8.5% fall in international sales.
- Marks & Spencer Group plc, financial statements 2026 — India as a named audit component with a performance materiality of £5.5m, against £5.0m the year before, and the combined non-controlling interest lines.
- Indian Retailer, 27 March 2019 — 76 stores across 32 cities.
- indiaretailing, 26 October 2023 — the 100th Indian store, on Linking Road, Santacruz West, Mumbai.
- Indian Retailer, 11 March 2025 — “more than 107 stores across 33 cities”, the last published store count.
- marksandspencer.in homepage — read 11 September 2026: the “Committed to ethically sourced materials” and “ethically sourced cotton” claims, and the footer’s “Corporate site” link.
- marksandspencer.in terms and conditions — read 11 September 2026: Marks and Spencer Reliance India Private Limited named as the selling entity, the Mumbai and Gurugram addresses and the grievance officer.
- marksandspencer.in thermals category page — read 11 September 2026: the Heatgen claims, the ₹1,299 to ₹2,999 range, and the absence of any tog rating, laboratory, certification or standard.
- Marks & Spencer, Global Sourcing Principles, January 2023 — the Ethical Trading Initiative Base Code and Global Social Compliance Programme Reference Code commitments, and the condition permitting publication of factory details.
- Marks & Spencer, Ethical Audits Methodology, August 2022 — annual two-pillar SMETA audits of all first-tier production sites by independent third parties.
- Marks & Spencer, interactive supplier map — the stated coverage of 100% of first-tier manufacturing sites making branded products, reviewed at least twice a year.
- Marks & Spencer Group plc, ESG report 2026 — 100% of clothing cotton from more responsible sources via Better Cotton, 94% verified recycled polyester, and the certified Indian tier-one and tier-two suppliers.
- Better Cotton, explanation of its on-product mark — that the logo does not mean the product contains traceable Better Cotton, and the mass-balance substitution it permits.
- Advertising Standards Council of India, complaint outcomes — read 11 September 2026: no outcome naming the brand or its Indian company, on a reading that returned findings against other advertisers the same day.
On ownership, this is one of the best-documented foreign brands an Indian shopper can buy: the joint venture is proved in the announcement that created it and in both parents’ audited accounts, and the declarations name real Bangladeshi factories rather than a trading firm. At a median ₹1,999 the clothes are fairly priced against H&M and Uniqlo.
The sourcing story is strong but sits on the British corporate site — SMETA audits, published sourcing principles and a factory map — rather than on the Indian shop pages, and the 100% cotton figure is a volume commitment under Better Cotton rather than a statement about one garment. Cool Comfort and Heatgen are sold on description, with no rating cited on the pages read, so judge them in the hand.
Buy it for the fit and the fabric at a price that is fair for its shelf, wait a discount rung if you can, and read the label for the factory and country.
