Bolland spurned by M&S women Thirty minutes later, Bolland and Stewart were hosting a conference call to talk through the results. "First I want to apologise for the unusual timing of this call," Bolland started. "I have in my script 'good morning," but I will say 'good evening."" The source of the leak remains unknown. However, the impression that has been left from the events of Wednesday night is that all is not well at M&S. This sort of thing simply does not happen to a blue chip company, let alone M&S, the country's biggest clothing retailer. On top of the leak now being investigated by chairman Robert Swannell, were poor trading figures. The 0.3pc rise in like-for-like food sales was below expectations, but this can be accounted for by the fact M&S did not see inflation in food prices and did not include December 30 and 31 in its numbers, which attract strong New Year's Eve sales. However, the 3.8pc drop in clothing sales was worse than even the most pessimistic predictions from analysts. Almost three years into the job, Bolland now looks under more pressure than ever. When he took over, the former Wm Morrison's chief executive launched a three-year plan to transform M&S into a modern, multi-national and multi-channel retailer. He has taken M&S back into Paris, expanded in China, and is building a new website for the company. However, as M&S enters the final stages of that plan, the company's vital womenswear range has shown no sign of improvement. Bolland has said that management changes he has made to the clothing division - including the departure of Kate Bostock and the arrival of former Debenhams boss Belinda Earl as style director - will not have an impact on the company's products until the autumn and winter ranges of 2013 and 2014. The early signs from the City are that Bolland will be given next Christmas to prove himself, but there is no doubt that shareholders and staff are becoming concerned. After the debacle of the leaked results, Christmas 2013 looks make or break for Bolland. "We recognise that M&S is under some pressure," said one top ten shareholder. We're inclined to give Bolland some time, perhaps six to 12 months, to get it right. One of the key issues is womenswear. Clearly he has a relatively new team there, and we want to give him to time to bed-in changes. So we're not pushing for any change, not yet in any case. The early signs as to whether Bolland and the new team can deliver that improvement in general merchandise are mixed. He believes it would "dreaming in the daylight" to believe that Earl and John Dixon, moved from head of food to lead general merchandise, could already have turned around M&S's womens clothing. But he insists the company is on track to meet his goal of transforming it from a "traditional UK retailer" to an "international multi-channel retailer" and, crucially, that the management team is behind him. You haven't seen mud and dirt thrown around," Bolland said, adding that there is "nothing wrong" with M&S. The company's share price would suggest that investors do believe Bolland's plan will be successful. Despite the decline in Christmas sales - described as "dreadful" by one analyst - shares in M&S are up 1pc since the figures were released. The City welcomed the fact that Bolland and Stewart had protected margins during the Christmas period - as Bolland expected they would. Clive Black, analyst at Shore Capital, has a "Buy" rating on M&S. "We thought long and hard about it and the glass is still half-full on M&S as an investment case. It is not time to empty the glass," he said. According to Black, once Bolland's three-year investment plan is complete, capital expenditure should fall and "an already robust balance sheet can become stronger." That could open the door to an increased dividend and share buybacks. However, despite the prospect of improved returns, Black believes the future will still hinge on womenswear: "If I was Mark Bolland I would pray to the clothing gods that they get autumn/winter right." However, there are signals that any improvement in sales may not come easily. On Thursday, in news that barely registered amid the chaos of the night before, Carole Boyes-Weston, head of design for the womenswear labels Per Una and Limited Collection, left the company after only nine months. There are also murmurs about Bolland's management style and whether he has been decisive enough on changing the general merchandise division. For example, analysts have suggested that he should focus on making M&S's individual brands, like Autograph, more distinctive. A rival retail leader said: "He comes across as unsure and needy. It looks like he is moving the deckchairs around on the Titantic. There has been no bold decisions. A second top ten shareholder said it is "watching closely" Bolland's international growth plans because of fears that M&S is diverting much needed capital expenditure from the UK to abroad. "Should the business be expanding internationally when they've got problems at home?" the shareholder said. The key thing is to stabilise the UK business. If you think about M&S, it's taking more cost out. But if you take too many staff out the stores end up impacting your own trading performance. That's what happened at Tesco. You've got to worry if they're taking out UK costs and losing share, should they be interested in rolling out internationally? The shareholder said they had told Bolland about their concerns: "We've questioned the lack of UK capex [capital expenditure] uplift, and whether he's damaging the UK franchise at the cost of international expansion." The comparison to Tesco is a concerning one for Bolland because last Christmas the supermarket group was forced to issue a profits warning, its first in decades. But it will also remind Bolland of how quickly fortunes can change in the retail industry. Philip Clarke, the Tesco chief executive, is now a favourite of the sector after delivering a 1.8pc uplift in like-for-like sales just a year on from the profits warning. Like Clarke, Bolland recognises the main problem behind the company's struggles. He will now be hoping that he can repeat the Tesco man's recovery in sales too.