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LONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Marks & Spencer reported a
rise in quarterly underlying sales for its overall UK business
for the first time since 2017 on Thursday, indicating its latest
attempt at a turnaround is showing some tentative progress.
M&S, one of the best known names in British retail, said its
overall like-for-like sales rose 0.2% in the 13 weeks to Dec.
28, its fiscal third quarter and the key Christmas trading
period.
Like-for-like food sales rose 1.4%, ahead of analysts'
average forecast of a 1.1% increase. Clothing and home sales on
the same basis fell 1.7%, below consensus expectations of a 0.8%
decline but much better than the previous quarter's 5.7% fall.
M&S said its full year guidance was unchanged, although
gross margins were expected to be around the lower end of
guidance, largely offset by cost reductions.
"We delivered an improved performance in Q3 across both main
businesses," said Chief Executive Steve Rowe.
"The food business continued to outperform the market and
clothing and home had a strong start to the quarter, albeit this
was followed by a challenging trading environment in the lead up
to Christmas," he said.
Rowe also highlighted "disappointing one-off issues",
notably waste and supply chain in the food business, buying in
menswear and the performance in gifting categories, which held
M&S back from delivering a stronger result.
Prior to the update analysts were on average forecasting a
full year 2019-20 pretax profit of 464 million pounds ($608.1
million)- that would be a fourth straight year of decline. A
decade ago, M&S made a profit of 1 billion pounds.
Shares in the 136-year-old M&S have fallen 17% over the last
year and in September the stock lost its place in the
prestigious FTSE 100 index symbolising its decline.
($1 = 0.7630 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey, editing by Sarah Young)
