When former Marks & Spencer boss Sir Richard Greenbury delivered a record billion pounds of profit in 1997, he and his fellow executives enjoyed the trappings of success.

The retailer’s top brass padded around on the plush carpets of the executive floor, enjoying silver service from a tea trolley rolling around the upper echelons of M&S’s sprawling head office on London’s Baker Street.

Now, in the harsh world of 21st-century retailing, those days are a distant memory.

M&S is embarking on a fresh round of job cuts in its head office. Teams are being reduced across the board, largely through natural attrition, as part of a rolling cost-cutting drive.

Sources told The Sunday Times that hundreds of jobs would probably be cut. An M&S spokeswoman