Marks & Spencer clothing and homeware sales hit by Covid-19 restrictions
Marks & Spencer has posted a 7.6% decline in third quarter UK like-for-like sales after its clothing and homewares division suffered due to Covid-19 restrictions.
On a total basis, group sales were down 8.4% to £2.77 billion in the 13 weeks to 26 December.
Like-for-like food sales increased by 2.6% despite reduced “food-on-the-move” sales and lower footfall in stores in town and city centres.
However, clothing and home like-for-likes declined by 24.1% after in-store sales dropped by 46.5%, although this was partially offset by strong online sales growth of 47.5%. The sales mix was heavily biased to Covid influenced products in the categories of sleepwear and leisurewear.
International revenue fell by 10.4% after trading was impacted by changingCovid-19 restrictions across the world.
Steve Rowe, M&S chief executive, said: “Given the on-off restrictions and distortions in demand patterns our trading was robust over the Christmas period. More importantly beneath the Covid clouds we saw a very strong performance from the Food business including Ocado Retail and a further acceleration of clothing & home online.
“Near term trading remains very challenging but we are continuing to accelerate change under our Never the Same Again programme to ensure the business emerges from the pandemic in very different shape.”
