Last week's event wasn't just a celebration, it was an M&S celebration, marking the redesign of the store that now provides 8,600 square feet of merchandise and a new cafe.

It's a mark of renewed confidence since M&S, that most British of brands, has experienced downs as well as ups over the past few years.

There was the big dip in economic performance in the early 2000s and the consequent fight to win back customers' hearts and credit cards. In Belfast, the flagship store came through the Troubles without losing faith or moving address. Its English-born manager Peter Philips (38) has overseen the recent revamp and now predicts a bright future: "We're in a city that's in the middle of regenerating itself.

"This part of town has Boots, Next and a New Look opening nearby. We considered moving to Castlecourt or the Victoria Square centre but decided not to, partly as customers like this location." They had to use very heavy duty gear to extend into the old Bank of Ireland premises, demolishing vaults with two-foot thick walls.

Mr Philips praises the company's celebrity marketing campaign; the latest news, excitedly announced by the PR woman, is that Take That will be fronting the Autograph menswear range, which Mr Philips is, naturally, wearing. "I'm in a machine washable navy pinstripe, retailing for £129 or is it £149, and an Autograph shirt and tie, but we won't go any further, " he says.

M&S's business approach is clearly working if the increase in share prices are anything to go by.

"We're now more closely in touch with our customers, and since MD Stuart Rose came on board, we've got a really good strategy," explains Mr Philips.

Part of that plan involves promoting green and ethical shopping, with carrier bags for life and a promise to recycle all packaging by 2012. " It's ethical retailing, and one thing we won't do is offer the knock-down prices of Primark and Tesco with their impact on profit margins and conditions of work."

This sounds like a benign dictatorship, and in a way it is.

Marks & Sparks not only kits us out and feeds us - Peter Philips' favourite food is the Chinese range - it provides insurance, credit and famously looks after its staff very well.

June Kelso, a youthful OAP, was one of the original team of sales advisors to work in Belfast. She got a rise on moving to M&S from her previous job, starting out on a princely £12. 10s a week.

"There were 10 of us, then one left and we became nine, doing our training in Argyll Street," she recalls.

It was January 1967 when knitted suits were all the rage and the new M&S employees were treated to a store party, with departmental heads drafted in to dance with them.

That attention to detail is also part of the M&S philosophy. The training included "work in the office, doing basic orders, and customer relations - the customer was king or queen ... ". This was all new to June, who had previously been used to jobs where you picked up the skills as you went along. Another innovation was the refund policy - "in Belfast, you couldn't have got a refund anywhere, even if the goods were faulty" .

She worked in shoes, or footwear as it was known, and was asked one day by a visiting divisional executive which line of shoes sold best. "I said the 25 shilling shoes, then he corrected me, saying the 19s. 6d were better sellers, and I replied 'You didn't ask me which made most money, but which sold best'." Then the man, who turned out to have a sense of humour, quizzed her on the amount made per week in her department. "I didn't know and nobody had told me, although my colleagues were signalling behind his back. So, he said : 'that's one-all, my dear.'"

The paternalistic regime meant that the employees enjoyed the services of a M &S dentist, optician and chiropodist. June's memories, which come flooding back, also involve details of dark times when the windows had to be fortified and shoppers passed through security checkpoints to come and buy.

One member of staff, Bernadette Reilly, has remained working at the store since it opened in September 1967.

How does it feel to have clocked up the full 40 years, with time off to have her four children? "It's like home and work combined to me," she says.

When Bernie started at 15, on the produce counter, the working day was different - "stricter". She was the talk of her street and thrilled to get the job, which paid £5. 6s a week. In fact, the only thing she really disliked was the uniform: "It was air force blue, a belted dress with long sleeves and it didn't suit me. "She sold loose fruit and vegetables, in the days before everything came pre-packed. "I was on food for a long time, 30 years, and we didn't have prepared dishes like we do now." She notes M&S's achievement in bringing foods such as pizza to the nation.

"We also had bestsellers such as the sultana cookies and peanut crunch cookies, which sold like hot cakes when they came in."

At times she thought of moving on, but couldn't ever bring herself to leave a "happy place to work". She remains, like the rest of us, a satisfied customer.