Heatwave and late Easter help struggling clothing arm at M&S
MARKS AND Spencer is set to reveal an improvement in its underpressure clothing arm next week after the recent heatwave and late Easter helped it narrow recent sales falls.
The retail bellwether reported a sobering set of annual results in May, showing clothing and home sales plunged back into reverse in its fourth quarter, tumbling by 5.9 per cent.
Experts are expecting the clothing and home sales fall to pare back to around 1.3 per cent in the group’s first quarter, which will include Easter this year and comes up against weaker trading from a year earlier.
Food sales, which tumbled by 2.1 per cent in the previous quarter, will rebound by 0.6 per cent thanks to warmer weather and rising inflation, according to analysts.
But with rivals such as Debenhams sounding the alarm over the squeeze from Brexit-fuelled inflation, the path to sales recovery is not expected to be smooth for M&S.
M&S posted a 64 per cent plunge in annual profits to £176.4m in May, admitting its overhaul had “come with a cost”.
As well as the Easter timing, its move to axe promotions in favour of everyday low prices hit sales.
But chief executive Steve Rowe said the group has stabilised its market share in clothing since the start of 2017, while action to cut clearance promotions has helped full-price sales surge by 11 per cent in the second half of its financial year.