By James Davey
LONDON, March 20 (Reuters) - Marks & Spencer,Britain's biggest clothing retailer, lost market share over thelast three months, market data showed on Thursday, reversing asmall gain late last year that was heralded by its chiefexecutive as a sign his recovery plan was working.
Data from research group Kantar Worldpanel, seen by Reuters,showed M&S' share of the UK fashion market declined 0.2 percentin the 24 weeks to Feb. 16 and was down 0.4 percent in thelatter 12 weeks of the period.
The data showed M&S's share of the key womenswear marketcontracted 0.2 percent over the 24 weeks and 0.5 percent overthe latter 12 weeks.
The loss of share will likely up the pressure on CEO MarcBolland, who has presided over 10 straight quarters of decliningunderlying sales in M&S's general merchandise division, whichincludes clothing.($1 = 0.6014 British Pounds) (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by David Holmes)
Marks & Spencer (MKS)