Marks & Spencer’s sales surged 5.6%in the 13 weeks to 28 December boosted by a strong performance in food and a more modest uptick across fashion, beauty and home.
The retailer achieved £4.06 billion in sales for the three month period, just under two-thirds of which came from its food division, which saw its biggest ever trading day during the period.
M&S food sales grew 8.9% on a like-for-like basis, compared to a 1.9% like-for-like sales growth across its clothing, home and beauty departments. CEO Stuart Machin said there was opportunity for further growth in home & beauty while its resurgent fashion division had taken further market share.
“In Clothing, Home & Beauty our focus on style, quality and value saw us grow sales and take market share in a declining market, with womenswear and menswear performing well. M&S partywear sales were up on last year but it was our heartland categories of denim and knitwear that outperformed. Although Home & Beauty grew, the development of these categories is nascent, and they remain areas of opportunity.
“Online grew strongly and new and renewed stores continued to outperform expectations, but store sales overall were down 1.5% in part due to weather. The opportunity for Clothing, Home & Beauty in 2025 is to continue offering customers the best style, quality and value, but marry that with a focus on turning stock faster, further reducing options and optimising store range and space. As in Food, these opportunities simply make us more resolute to go faster on our plans to modernise the supply chain and utilise digital and technology to maximise our online potential.”
Machin described the performance a “another good Christmas for M&S, building on a strong performance in the prior year” but cautioned on challenging market conditions ahead.
“Sales records were broken across the business, with food recording its biggest day and clothing, home and beauty online its biggest week, but we’re not complacent – as a growth business it’s our job to break records.
“The external environment remains challenging, with cost and economic headwinds to navigate, but there is much within our control.”
Machin warned before Christmas that measures in the October budget would hit Marks & Spencer’s bottom line to the tune of £120 million, and refused to rule out price rises to offset the extra costs.
The vast majority of sales come from M&S’s UK and Ireland business, which recorded a 6.4% like-for-like sales rise. Its international sales came in at £178 million, a 2.8% drop compared with last year.
