BHS v M&S: It's war! It's the chain the High Street forgot. But British Home Stores is plotting an unlikely revival - and turning its guns on Mrs Middle England's favourite shop

• The fight to seduce Mrs Middle England is on as BHS and M&S begin battle
• BHS are introducing 50 new food halls, high-quality homewear
• Perhaps most importantly, BHS will release new line of women's clothing
• A number of senior staff from M&S have recently moved to BHS
  

By Gemma Champ

Published: 19:07 EDT, 23 April 2014 | Updated: 03:31 EDT, 24 April 2014

From the clean-cut adverts featuring pretty, sleeved dresses to the new in-store food halls, everything is calculated to seduce  Mrs Middle England.

But, no, this isn’t Marks & Spencer: it’s BHS.

Remember British Home Stores? It was the High Street’s last bastion of flammable tat and elasticated waists. But, after making a loss of £71 million last year, its Monaco-tanned owner Sir Philip Green seems to have settled on an aggressive new strategy: copying M&S in every possible way.

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BHS are targeting Middle England mums. 'People don't want to buy cheap rubbish,' Sir Philip says bluntly. 'People want to buy nicer things. Premium value.'

BHS is about to fight M&S by introducing 50 new food halls, a range of high-quality homeware in vamped-up shops and a new line of well-cut clothing designed for older women.

In Sir Philip’s quest to capture mid-market woman, he has also been busy poaching a host of senior staff from M&S, including managing director Richard Price, womenswear trading director Sara Bradley and head of childrenswear buying Rachael Smith.

Sir Philip is clearly moving in for the kill but, as he walks me through his souped-up collection at BHS’s Central London headquarters, he steadfastly refuses to be drawn into comparing BHS and M&S directly.

Instead he talks about his new target customer: ‘a Middle England mum — a slightly older demographic’. Sounds familiar? ‘People don’t want to buy  cheap rubbish,’ he says bluntly.  ‘People want to buy nicer things. Premium value.’

Squint slightly and everything looks like it could have come from Marks — albeit for a fraction of the price — from a smart print jacket to a Roland Mouret-alike monochrome body-con illusion dress for £35.

Then there’s the new BHS Food Stores. For the moment they’re stocking only basic groceries — no gourmet TV dinners likely to trouble the M&S food hall — but the swanky style of some of the posh nosh planned for the Christmas gifts section makes it clear that battlelines are being drawn.

Homeware is also being taken very seriously. Sir Philip wants it to pass his acid test: ‘If you put it on a table, without a label, can you guess it’s from BHS?’

A candle in a glass jar catches his eye. ‘How much is that?’ he demands. ‘Ten pounds,’ a quivering subordinate splutters.

‘Exactly. That’s great! £10? That’s fabulous. I want my wife to see that. I’m taking that with me. That’s really good. That is excellent. £10? Bravo,’ he says, scooping it up. Lucky Mrs Green.

But he’s not done with blowing the BHS trumpet: ‘Somebody well-known texted me last week and said: “I just happened to go into BHS and bought four fabulous lights and some fabulous home stuff.”’

Which of his celebrity friends could it have been? Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Hudson, Naomi Campbell, or perhaps Kate Moss? ‘Just someone you’d know,’ he says, with a nudge-wink smirk.

So how do BHS’s offerings compare with those from M&S? The answers may surprise you… 

FOOD

All BHS branches had food halls for years, but they were closed in the late Eighties. Now Sir Philip is testing the waters with two BHS Food Stores in Staines and Warrington. Another will open in Romford in four weeks.

So is there likely to be a BHS chicken tikka masala or cottage pie? So far, it seems not, with the Food Stores offering instead an affordable mix of branded goods — such as Pepsi at £1 for two litres and Bisto gravy granules at £1 for a 170g jar — as well as alcohol and fresh and frozen foods.

The stores are punctuated by giant price signs and red stickers boldly announcing ‘£1’ or ‘85p’. It’s not very M&S, but Sir Philip says that customers are already going for a less ‘larder-stocking mix’ than expected — with fresh food doing well — so the potential for selling posher groceries is definitely there.

And take a look at the Christmas gift items that will be in the main department store (yes, they’ve already been planned). There are £35 hampers, swanky chocolates and big, classy bottles of infused olive oil that are distinctly upmarket.

HOMES

This is BHS’s heartland, and the retailer has really gone for it, with everything from £15 duvet sets inspired by Prada and Carnaby Street to bravely quirky floor lamps for £130.

The products are high-end and smartly grouped into design styles, including next season’s sophisticated ‘Greyscale’ look — all soft, luxurious textures in the proverbial 50 shades of grey, highlighted by expensive-looking metallic gleams.

Christmas collections, too, will go far beyond baubles and tinsel, with stylish and quirky bedding, lighting and decorations that would look at home in Heal’s or Graham & Green.

BHS' Alyssa Purple Flower dinner plate, £3, M&S' Summer Meadow dinner plate, £7.50

With everything pulled together into room-sets styled up to look like Interiors magazine, BHS could be a real secret weapon in decorating the home.

In contrast, M&S feels like a very cohesive collection but slightly bland — all very tasteful but not nearly as much fun. BHS has a strong vintage streak, while M&S is more contemporary but less vibrant. The  different takes on this year’s favourite owl cushions say it all — BHS has a funny little thing by quirky young label Sass & Belle, while M&S offers a more subtle cushion in shades of brown.

Two plates tell the same tale: M&S’s pretty but crisp Spring Meadow dinner plate versus BHS’s painterly, confident Alyssa Purple Flower dinner plate.

Prices, surprisingly, are almost on a par in many cases, although BHS is still erring towards the cheaper side.

LINGERIE

BHS' Floral Mardi  Gras bra, £16, M&S' Rosie for Autograph silk bra, £22.50

M&S’s loyal customers love its lingerie with a passion — and it’ll be nigh on impossible to lure them away.

In any case BHS’s current range simply does not reach the heights of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s satin drawers.

However, it does have some pretty lace bras from just £12 — a price that is on a par  with M&S’s most basic bras — and many are made in the same factories as M&S’s, so the quality is up there, if not the variety.

SHOES & ACCESSORIES

Most M&S shoes now feature the comfort-enhancing Insolia inner soles. But BHS has a rather stylish collection featuring foot-friendly details such as low block heels and low wedges. There are also a couple of good statement bags, although some do look cheap close up. But at around £20, they’re half the price of M&S’s.

BHS' Wide-fit peep-toe  slingbacks, £15, M&S' Peep-toe Insolia slingbacks, £17.50

WOMENSWEAR

The bread and butter of both Marks & Spencer and BHS’s clothing lines have long been easy-to-wear basics: T-shirts and blouses, comfortable trousers and classic office wear that won’t scare the horses.

However, M&S has also spent years developing more high-profile brands — like the Limited Collection, Autograph, and love-it-or-loathe-it Per Una — that cover every base from beachwear to eveningwear. BHS is now taking the same path by renaming its classics range ‘Profile’.

But instead of grouping clothes by brand, BHS is grouping them by category — T-shirts, occasionwear, shoes, and so on. This undoubtedly makes it easier to shop for specific items. After all, if you want to buy a cardigan, it makes sense to have all the cardigans in one place rather than scattered around the shop.

BHS' Gold shift dress, £55, M&S' Pearl effect prom dress, £89

For this spring/summer, the frumpy-but-functional BHS utility trousers are still selling in the hundreds of thousands — but many of its key pieces, such as smart dresses and jackets, are well-tailored, fashionable, tasteful and distinctive.

A great deal of effort has been put into fabrics, too — historically one of M&S’s strengths.

At BHS, Sara Bradley’s product knowledge seems to be shining through here, to the possible detriment of her former M&S bosses. The daywear includes some surprisingly sophisticated, well-cut wiggle and shift dresses, costing between £30 and £50 — slightly less than similar dresses in M&S’s standard ranges.

BHS' Pocket crepe tunic dress,  £25, M&S' Zipped pocket shift dress, £39.50

And there are plenty of sleeves (oh happy days), lower hemlines and generous cuts to please the less-than-coltishly slim.

Knitwear is still basic, with some acrylic faux-cashmere jumpers that will have you crackling like an electric force field.

However, there are pure cotton cardigans for £15 in a rainbow of shades that Sir Philip says he is proud of. But at the moment, BHS is still a long way from the breadth of M&S’s knit collections.

When it comes to next autumn’s coats, BHS has a range starting at £45, from little-old-lady sensible to gently fashionable — a relatively conservative approach that may well appeal to those turned off by the styling extremes  of the M&S Best Of  British collection.

Eveningwear has gone glam, too: there are well- tailored vintage-looking dresses with lots of lace and gold jacquard, impressive amounts of beading on the necklines and accessories to match.

Skirt lengths are elegantly low and, as well as the younger looks, there are forgiving pieces that will hide middle-aged spread.