Marks & Spencer ‘non food’ sales fall for 14th straight quarter

Marks & Spencer logged disastrous Christmas sales at its clothing and gifts business following a warehouse meltdown and warm weather, The Independent reported. This marked the 14th successive quarter of declining sales.

The high-street giant admitted that its peak December trade took a £200-million hit, after a state-of-the-art distribution centre in Castle Donington, in the East Midlands, failed to cope with demand.

Chief Marc Bolland, described the 5.8-per cent decline in non-food sales as ''clearly disappointing'' adding however, that the problems had now been put right at the warehouse.

He said it was a very a advanced automated site. He added, the disruption started with Black Friday and there was a sustained volume peak after that.

He said the distribution centre basically did two things - picking and packing.

He said on the picking side the retailer was not getting the flow it needed while on the packing side it did not have the flexibility to manage the complexity of Christmas. He said on the automation settings, the company needed to get the picking better.

He said before the December peak, the company suffered from the warm autumn and winter weather to a greater extent than its rivals, due to M&S being the biggest seller of coats and knitwear seller on the high street.

Meanwhile, thisismoney.co.uk reported that international business suffered from currency fluctuations and even its star-performing food business missed forecasts. Bolland insisted food sales had performed strongly however in other areas he conceded it was disappointing.

Underlying sales in general merchandise, which included clothing, fell 5.8 per cent, the 14th consecutive quarterly decline, and Bolland had overseen a reversal of what was once an area of improvement.

According to veteran analyst Nick Bubb who described the figures as 'awful', only cost-cutting saved the retailer from a profit warning.

David Buik, of stockbroker Panmure Gordon was scathing in his criticism.

He said M&S efforts with general merchandise in the last quarter – vital as it included Christmas – could only be described as disgraceful and unacceptable.

He wondered how much longer market and fund managers would need to put up with the wave of excuses and false promises that life was getting better?

Marc Bolland's credibility had taken another huge knock, he added.