LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Marks & Spencer has
maintained its position as Britain's fastest growing food
retailer, market researcher NielsenIQ said on Tuesday,
indicating its turnaround plan is gaining momentum.
It said M&S's sales rose 12.3% in the 12 weeks to Jan. 29
year-on-year, giving it a UK grocery market share of 3.6%, up
0.4 percentage points on the year.
Last month, M&S nudged up its profit outlook after it
reported a strong Christmas, and hopes are rising its latest
attempt at a turnaround could succeed after decades of false
dawns.
NielsenIQ's data showed market leader Tesco was the
best performer of Britain's so-called Big Four grocers.
Its 0.3% sales decline significantly outperformed
Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons, which had falls of
3.7%, 4.3% and 6.9% respectively.
The data echoed figures from rival market researcher Kantar
published last week. However, Kantar does not include M&S in its
monthly reports.
M&S also had weaker comparative sales numbers than the big
four in the same period of 2020-21.
NielsenIQ said overall UK supermarket sales fell 2.9% over
the four weeks to Jan. 29.
Comparatives were very tough, as in the same period last
year the United Kingdom was in COVID-19 lockdown and sales grew
10.6%.
(Reporting by James Davey
Editing by Mark Potter)