M&S Christmas quarter sales drop amid 'difficult market'

For its third quarter to December 29, 2018, Marks and Spencer Plc (M&S) reported 4.8 percent decline in UK Clothing & Home sales to 1,103 million pounds (1,407 million dollars) with like-for-like sales down 2.4 percent. International sales were 15.1 percent to 262 million pounds (334 million dollars), while group sales declined 3.9 percent to 3,044 million pounds (3,883 million dollars). The company said that international revenue was down 1.4 percent excluding impact of the sale of its Hong Kong business to the franchise partner and the closure of stores in loss making exit markets.

“The combination of reducing consumer confidence, mild weather, Black Friday, and widespread discounting by our competitors made November a very challenging trading period. However, overall our 13-week performance was steady with some early encouraging signs. In Clothing & Home we are at the early stages of far reaching changes in range, in style, customer focus and channel mix. We expect to see more far reaching changes in range and store development as the year ahead unfolds.”

The company added that Clothing & Home revenue reflecting lower footfall to stores, partly as a result of increasing pace of closures, with online growth of 14 percent driven by improvements to proposition and operations. Stock into sale down 25 percent, as a result of planned reduction in stock levels.

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