A brand for older women no more. The icing on M&S’s turnaround cake is that younger women are again perceiving the high street retailer as the place to shop for fashion.

That’s the management’s view with bosses claiming the average age of its new customers has fallen significantly, boosted by the introduction of its ‘Brands at M&S’ initiative.

Richard Price, clothing chief of M&S, told The Telegraph that the retailer had gained 1.4 million new customers online this year, adding: “The exciting thing is that the average age of these customers is five years younger based on recent testing.”

He said this was a “really encouraging sign” for M&S, which has been seeking to win over more 35-50-year-olds with a focus on fashion clothing, although the retailer declined to give exact figures for the average ages.

Price said latest internal data showed M&S was now “attracting a new generation of customers” as well as holding on to its existing shopper-base.

Recent figures from Kantar suggest M&S has been increasing its share of the clothing market across all age ranges of customers. However, its share has grown more proportionately among under-35s.

That’s a transformation, given that a study in 2021 revealed that more than 50% of people buying M&S clothes were aged over 55.

Archie Norman, the M&S chairman, has pushed the company to introduce more fashionable clothes for all ages since his appointment in 2017. In an internal report prepared after Norman took over as chairman, the retail veteran said M&S needed to stop making so many clothes for the over-55s and instead “attract the 35+ customer back”.

Over the last few years, M&S has started to reverse that slump after making sweeping changes in its clothing business, including agreeing to sell third-party brands targeting younger shoppers such as Nobody’s Child that now numbers over 100.

According to GlobalData, its share of the clothing and home market was back at 5.6% last year. Since then, sales in the clothing and home market have risen and, in May, M&S said it was now in the “strongest financial health” since 1997.

Pippa Stephens, of GlobalData, said: “M&S’s turnaround strategy has been very successful over the past few years, with its clothing proposition becoming more trend-led and appealing to consumers across a wider age range.

“As well as its collections being more modern and stylish, its addition of third-party brands has also helped it, as it has allowed it to bring in new shoppers who wouldn’t usually think to shop its own-brand ranges.”