Marks and Spencer group plc has released its third quarter 2017/18 trading statement for 13 weeks to 30 December 2017, showing a small drop in food sales.
For the total group, sales stood at £3,167m, which was down 0.1% in like-for-likes. Total revenue for the UK totalled £2,858m, a rise of 1.1%, which equates to a fall of 1.4% compared to the previous year.
For the period, M&S reported that for food, revenues came to £1,666m, a 3.6% uplift but 0.4% less than the year before.
For the food business, ongoing trading pressures continued in the lead up to Christmas as consumer spending and choices reflected tighter budgets. Price investment before Christmas and a strong performance from seasonal lines helped late trading. As outlined at our Interim results, we are making further changes to get the business back on track in the year ahead.
Steve Rowe, Chief Executive said: “M&S had a mixed quarter with better Christmas trading in both businesses going some way to offset a weak clothing market in October and ongoing underperformance in our Food like-for-like sales. As a result, full year guidance remains unchanged.
“We continue with the accelerated transformation programme we outlined in November and have recently taken several important steps to reshape the business for the future. These include a new technology partnership and organisation, and the sale of our Hong Kong based business in line with the streamlined franchise-led model we are adopting for International.”
