Clothing sales at Mark & Spencer’s down in Christmas quarter
10 Jan 2013
Non-food sales in the Christmas quarter at retailer Marks & Spencer registered a bigger than expected drop, after the company decided to offer fewer discounts even as Debenhams and other rivals were offering more.
In a third-quarter update that was hurriedly disclosed yesterday, after trading data was leaked to Sky News, the company said sales of clothing, footwear and homewares declined 3.8 per cent in the 13 weeks to 29 December at UK stores open more than a year.
The sales appear to be weak as against recent updates from Next, John Lewis and Debenhams.
"Our general merchandise performance is not yet satisfactory," chief executive Marc Bolland told reporters in a hastily convened conference call.
He said he remained confident of steps being taken by a new general merchandise management team led by former food boss John Dixon to address this.
He, however, reiterated that the new team would not make a major impact until M&S launched autumn/winter collections in July.
