M&S food sees ‘record’ Christmas week sales

Multinational retailer Marks and Spencer plc (M&S) saw Q3 sales in its food business rise by 3.7% like for like, with the segment also marking its busiest festive period to date.

M&S’ food sales skyrocketed by 17% during the Christmas week, while the 13 weeks to December 26 also saw the retailer’s digital presence strengthen with sales at M&S.com up by 20%.

Overseas markets were, however, the core driver of online growth for the firm, with total UK sales at M&S.com down 0.3%.

Similarly, the company’s general merchandise sales managed to fall in Q3, down year on year by 5%.

Chief executive Marc Bolland said of the Q3 results: “M&S had an excellent Christmas in Food, delivering record Christmas sales and strongly outperforming the market. General merchandise (GM) sales were disappointing.

“We continued to prioritise gross margin and held back from the heavy discounting seen across the market in the run up to Christmas.”

He added: “As a result we now expect GM gross margin to be at the top end of the guided range.”

To address the drop in GM sales, M&S said its team is now focusing on ranging, availability and design as “three key priorities”.

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