There may be a few churlish souls who look at this morning's results from M&S and point out that the company still falls short of its former greatness. The pre-tax profits were up 28.5 per cent to £965 million, but still not quite what they were before Marks began its decline in 1998.

The fact is that chief executive Stuart Rose and his team at M&S have pulled off the most significant turnaround on the British high street in recent years.

What is even more important, in the midst of the current debate over public vs private ownership, is that they have engineered a recovery after fending off a bid to take it private. In that sense, Mr Rose has become the poster boy for shareholder ownership.

To be sure, M&S is no Tesco. It has not shown the consistency and breadth of growth over the years in the way that Britain's biggest supermarket has under the stewardship of Sir Terry Leahy.

BACKGROUND

• M&S bows to pressure over top bonuses

• Marks & Spencer chief reaps bonus benefit

• How the M&S boss turned green

• Marks & Spencer ousts retail director in broad reshuffle

• Rose’s turnaround plan is paying off for M&S

M&S comment: Quite an achievement

Stuart Rose has achieved the biggest high street turnaround in years

Related Internet Links

• Marks & Spencer company information

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There are questions too about the high costs of M&S refurbishments. And while the company has shown strong international growth over the past year, its overseas strategy is still at an early and unclear stage. Does it plan to own and operate stores? Will it go back into markets where it has struggled before? How will it maintain control over its foreign ventures?

But what is impressive about these figures is the success across the board: both in clothing and food, both at home and abroad, both across the full 52 weeks of the year and in the difficult fourth quarter just passed.

Like most retailers these days, Mr Rose has also got religion on the environment. M&S Plan A - its programme for cutting carbon emissions - is making progress.

But the really interesting addition to the M&S mix today is that Martha Lane Fox, one of the co-founders of lastminute.com, is joining the board. As well as weighing into the green debate, M&S may be finally readying to join the dot-com revolution.

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