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* M&S sales up 9.4% y/y in 12 weeks to Jan. 1 - NielsenIQ
* M&S will publish its own trading statement on Thursday
By James Davey
LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Marks & Spencer was
Britain's fastest growing food retailer in the key Christmas
quarter, market researcher NielsenIQ said on Tuesday, providing
further evidence that the company's latest turnaround programme
is gaining traction.
NielsenIQ said M&S's grocery sales soared 9.4% in the 12
weeks to Jan. 1 from the same period a year earlier, with growth
accelerating from its November report.
In November, M&S said it had beaten forecasts for first-half
profit and upgraded its earnings outlook for the second time in
three months, sending its stock soaring on bets that one of
Britain's most elusive turnarounds could finally materialise.
Its shares have now surged 84% over the last year.
Some analysts believe M&S, which also sells clothing and
homeware, could upgrade its 2021-22 profit outlook again on
Thursday when it publishes its own third-quarter trading update.
NielsenIQ's data showed market leader Tesco was the
best performer of Britain's so-called Big Four grocers.
Its 0.1% sales decline significantly outperformed
Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons which had falls of
4.2%, 3.1% and 5.6% respectively.
That data echoed data from rival market researcher Kantar
published last week. However, Kantar does not include M&S in its
monthly reports.
NielsenIQ noted, however, that M&S had weaker comparative
sales numbers than the Big Four in 2020.
The researcher said UK shoppers spent a total of 7.1 billion
pounds ($9.6 billion) at supermarkets in the two weeks to Dec.
25, up from 6.7 billion pounds in 2020.
Sainsbury's will give an update on its Christmas trading on
Wednesday, while Tesco will provide an update on Thursday.
The British arm of German discount supermarket group Aldi
said on Monday its sales in December rose 0.4% compared with the
previous year.
($1 = 0.7374 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by David Clarke)
