LONDON, April 2 (Reuters) - British retailer Marks & Spencer on Thursday posted its best non-food sales performancefor nearly four years as it started to put its onlinedistribution problems behind it.
The firm said sales of general merchandise, spanningclothing, footwear and homewares, at stores open over a yearrose 0.7 percent in the 13 weeks to March 28, its fiscal fourthquarter.
The outcome was the first time in 15 quarters M&S has notposted a fall in non-food like-for-like sales.
It was also better than analysts' average forecast of down1.2 percent and followed a third quarter decline of 5.8 percent,which reflected unseasonal weather in October and November anddisruption at its e-commerce distribution centre in December.
Like-for-like sales in M&S's food business rose 0.7 percent- a 22nd straight quarterly rise. (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Paul Sandle)