If The Shoe Fits: Slipper Sales Give Marks & Spencer Reason to Relax

Marks & Spencer's annual general meeting lived up to its thrilling expectations as it revealed that... one in five men who purchased slippers in 2013 bought theirs from the retailing giant.

Although this may seem like a rather dull and pointless statistic, it actually represents a fairly significant sum.

This means that 1.3 million men of the great British public are in possession of a pair of M&S slippers, and that 6.5 million men wear any brand of slippers – over a tenth of the UK population.

Looking at it from a different angle, more men in Britain own a pair of M&S slippers than there are people in Iceland, Luxembourg and the Bahamas – combined!

Although you may almost collapse from a lack of oxygen after sighing so heavily as you read this, it will at least give the once dominant retailer something to boast about after reporting three straight years of falling profits.

CEO Marc Bolland has been under intense scrutiny as he promised to revitalise the faltering brand within three years when he joined in 2011.

This proved to be a false promise in May's annual results when it was revealed that annual profits to the end of March 2014 were £623m, down from £665.2m a year earlier, M&S said.

Disappointing sales year after year will have led to many sleepless nights for M&S's boss but at least Bolland will have no trouble relaxing with the 1.3 million pairs of slippers he bought last year...