Marks and Spencer Group plc has published its Christmas 2021/2022 trading statement for 13 weeks to 1 January 2022.
Food sales increased 12.4% to £1.9bn, with sales excluding hospitality and franchise up 16.4%. Retail parks and Simply Food stores continued to outperform. Encouragingly, the larger basket sizes we saw in the first half continued through the Christmas period as customers used M&S for more of their everyday shopping.
As a result, M&S was the fastest growing major store-based Food retailer in the period. The business generated its highest ever Christmas sales with December growth in line with the performance for the quarter. In addition, although not included in these numbers, M&S products performed strongly on Ocado.com, representing c.30% of baskets in December.
Steve Rowe, Chief Executive said, “Trading over the Christmas period has been strong, demonstrating the continued improvements we’ve made to product and value. Clothing & Home has delivered growth for the second successive quarter, supported by robust online and full price sales growth.
'Food has maintained its momentum, outperforming the market over both 12 and 24 months. The market continues to be impacted by the headwinds and tailwinds that we reported in the first half, but I remain encouraged that our transformation plan is now driving improved performance.”
